


The Hybrid Project

by Octopusfan13



Series: The Breeding Project [2]
Category: Invader Zim
Genre: Drama, F/M, M/M, Outer Space, RaPr, Romance, ZaDr, angsty teens with romantic tension, mpeg offspring, teen shenanigans
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-01
Updated: 2019-08-16
Packaged: 2019-12-30 11:42:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 24,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18314621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Octopusfan13/pseuds/Octopusfan13
Summary: Sequel to The Breeding Project.Maroon was the star pupil of the Academy, only offspring to the Tallest and the most loved and famous of all Irkens. Lilith was believed to be an orphan, a hybrid between the most infamous Irken, Zim, and an alien species, yet she was adopted by the Tallest and had skills and talents yet to be tested. He wanted to stay in the limelight and she wanted to prove herself, to find a place to belong knowing that she had none.Meanwhile, the Resisty grows stronger and builds a force to be reckoned with both in technology and recruitment. The newest and most successful Captain in the Resisty's army wields his assigned ship "The Rancor" against Irken forces with frighteningly victorious results.Rumors and whispers reach the rival Irkens on Irk and they decide that this is the perfect opportunity to finally prove who is the superior soldier.





	1. The Choice

The sirens of the ship were loud and obnoxious and only added to the mounting stress. Steam hissed from the walls and Zim distantly heard parts of the ship exploding. It was happening too fast! There must have been some built up pressure somewhere that enhanced the explosions his bombs were creating. Normally this wouldn’t have been an issue, but Zim had been delayed in sending out the signal. 

The pathway from Voot had been blocked due to an early explosion and Dib hadn’t responded to his calls. Zim had just finished altering the ship’s internal memory and uploading some false data. He was supposed to head back to the bridge to meet Dib and send out the signal, but there was no response from the human once Zim reported that his part was completed. 

The silence worried him and forced him to abandon their plan and head to where his human was supposed to be. Best case scenario he would meet Dib along the way and he could yell at him for not responding, worst case… Zim didn’t want to think about the worse case.

He found the hall Dib was supposed to take completely blocked and clearing a path had taken too much time. He had to be very careful removing the debris… just in case. Unfortunately, his fears were justified when he removed a section of rubble and found his mate unconscious and bleeding.

The scene shocked Zim, his brainmeats were unable to come to terms with what he was seeing. He was thankful that Dib was unconscious, the pain would have been excruciating to the human. Another distant explosion spurred Zim into action. Quickly he assessed the situation. Luckily, the rod sticking through Dib’s side wasn’t that large and it was easily cut with Zim’s PAK laser. He left the metal chunk in his body, knowing that he wouldn’t have time to stop the blood flow properly if he removed it. The arm though… there wasn’t much he could do about that. The debris that fell on it had completely destroyed it. 

Gritting his teeth and thankful once again that Dib was unconscious, Zim used his PAK laser to sever the arm and simultaneously cauterize the wound. Scooping up his broken human Zim ran down the hall to the bridge. The only solace Zim took was that he had received word earlier from Dib that the Voot had been sent out. So he knew that Lilith had made it out safely. After reaching the bridge, Zim carefully set him down and immediately sent out the signal to their allies. His antennae went ramrod straight as he waited longer than he should have for a response. Gir crawled out from under the navigator’s chair holding a stuffed piggy. 

“Mary looks extra pointy,” Gir said going over the unconscious human and poking to the metal sticking out from his side.

“Quiet!” Zim snapped. “Don’t touch him!” he turned back to listen and luckily Gir obeyed this time choosing to sit next to Dib and play with his piggy instead.

“...on.... had trouble… asteroid…. Irken scouts…” the choppy staticy voice said over the very secure and secret communication line. “... five minutes to.... Point.”

“Zim doesn’t have five minutes!” Zim shouted back. 

“...as fast...can…”

Zim hissed with frustration and tugged on his antennae. Looking back at Dib he grew even more impatient as blood began to pool under him. He grabbed the helmet that they had placed here in preparation and carefully slid it onto Dib’s head and activated the spacesuit that encompassed the human’s body in an invisible suit. This would allow the human to breathe in space for a short time, but the suit wasn’t made for spending an extended amount of time in space. 

They would have all escaped in the Voot, as cramped as it was, but then there would have been record of an escape pod. Someone had to stay behind after launching it to erase any data of its existence. Also the secure line to send out the signal could only be accessed from the bridge and erasing the data and then running to send out the signal would take too long. As furious as he was at their contact being late, if they weren’t then he would have missed the rendezvous point since it had taken more time to go back and save Dib.

However, each extra second that ticked by sent the Voot further and further away. It was vital that they remained on schedule. 

“...here…”

“Gir!” Zim said and pointed to his PAK. Gir let out a happy squeal and latched on. Zim didn’t wait any further and scooping up Dib, he turned to shield the human with his body and activated the last bomb in the bridge. The blast blew out the front of their ship and they were sucked out into space. Zim felt his body take damage even through the protective suit, but a quick glance told him that his human wasn’t affected much more. 

“Gir! Get us to the rendezvous point now!” he commanded.

“Okie dokie!” Gir said and activated the jets in his feet to propel them away from the ship. 

However, the timing was off and he wasn’t fast enough as the heat and force from their ship exploding sent them spirling forward. Zim curled his body around Dib’s to shield him as best he could. Debris rocketed past them while Gir screamed in excitement. Zim cursed and thought they were done for when he felt a tractor beam lock onto them and quickly pull them into their rescue ship. As soon as the airlock closed behind them, the door into the ship opened and a young Vortian stepped out. 

Gir jumped off Zim’s PAK and ran under the Vortian’s legs and into the ship screaming that his piggy needed a bath.

The Vortian almost tripped over Gir and frowned as the robot ran into his ship, but ultimately decided to deal with him later. “You’re lucky I was able to catch you guys--” he cut himself off and gasped when he saw the state Dib was in. “What the Vort happened to Dib?” he said rushing over and pulling a scanner off his belt to wave it over the human. He swore more in his own language as he reviewed the data. “He’s in a critical condition. We need to get him back to the Freedom. I don’t have the tools here to handle this kind of damage.”

“But the Voot!” Zim shouted. 

The Vortian shook his head sadly, his face was full of sympathy. “I saw the blast send it out further than anticipated. It will take longer to chase after it, especially since there is no way to track it. If we go after the Voot, we won’t make it back to the Freedom in time,” he said looking down hopelessly at the human. “I’m sorry, Zim,” he said his expression full of remorse and pity. “But you have to make a choice.”

Zim felt his insides clench, like his body was caving in on itself. A horrible gut wrenching sound escaped from his lips as he leaned over, cradling Dib in his arms. For the first time in his long life he cried. His despair became a physical pain tearing his spooch apart. His decision would destroy everything. It hurt! It hurt so much, but he wasn’t human and to him there was only one choice. Knowing what it would do. Knowing that it would destroy everything between them, Zim held his mate tighter. That horrible sound escaped from his mouth again as the tears continued to fall, but his voice was clear when he spoke. 

“Take us to the Freedom.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> April fools, this isn't the first chapter just the prolog! 
> 
> Also to have things make more sense timeline wise: the beginning of this takes place 3 years after the end of the Breeding Project's last chapter. So in Earth years (natural born Smeets age similar to humans until they reach maturity then their age dramatically slows) Maroon is currently 17 and Lilith is 14 at this point. Lilith was born roughly 3 years after Maroon. 
> 
> ((side note: I was thinking of making a patron where I can post early release chapters of this and run polls on which stories I should focus on more. Also if there is interest I want to create short side stories about Red and Purple and/or Zim and Dib raising their respective Smeets. I would still post those stories here, but early release chapters would be on patron and there would be voting on what the topics of the short stories should be about, childhood/parenthood antics and such. Thoughts?))


	2. Lilith

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay! First chapter! These will be a little slow and I'm going to try rotating what stories I work on. The next chapter I want to finish is in "All I Need Is You" and then a chapter for "Space Step-Dad" then this one. Because I like torturing myself and for some unknown reason I decided to post several stories at once.

Lilith sat in her cage. This wasn't turning out to the best day. In fact it was number five in the ranking of worst days ever. Number four was the time she messed up Pop's experiment and caused the lab to explode with pink sticky goop. Her punishment for making the mess was cleaning it, which had been horrible. Day three had been the time she took Pop's advice for making friends and ended up making a complete fool out of herself by yelling at her classmates and insulting them. Number two was the day Dad informed her that they were going to move far away, _way_ far away. The worst day ever...well... that was obvious, it was the day she learned the meaning of loneliness.

The guard in charge of her ran his taser-stick along the metal bars of her cage sending sparks flying. One hit her cheek and she hissed at the slight pain, her golden eyes narrowing at the Irken guard. He sneered back and jabbed the stick into her cage making her jump back to get out of reach. He snickered then pushed a plate of a green goop through the food slot. The smell was absolutely revolting and even wrapped up and hidden in her black hair, her antennae quivered at the assaulting scent. Oh god, it smelt like rotting fish and mustard. Lilith gagged and nudged the plate as far from herself as she could with the tip of her boot.

Annoyed, the guard chattered in an achingly familiar but still foreign language. He pointed to her then the plate, then to his open mouth. Lilith rapidly shook her head. The guard scowled and repeated the gesture firmly. Lilith scowled back, she couldn't understand Irken, but that didn't mean she was stupid. She pointed to the plate the held up her arms crossed in front of her and then swept them out in a clear 'hell no' gesture.

He scowled intently for a few seconds more before all tension left his face and he shrugged, dismissing her from his mind. He'd done his job, it wasn't his fault if she was refusing food. He turned and left her alone in the holding room.

Once she was alone Lilith took out her pocket laser knife hidden expertly away in her boot and carefully, but quickly, began sawing at the strong metal bar. She wasn't sure how much time had passed before the bar finally gave way and fell to the floor with a loud clang. Wincing at the sound Lilith anxiously snapped her head to the door, but no one came rushing in. Breathing a sigh of relief Lilith carefully climbed out of the cage avoiding the red-hot spots she had been cutting at. Free of the cage, she dashed towards the door.

They would probably still have her little Voot in the docking bay. She vaguely knew how to get back after being carried here. All she had to do was avoid any and all Irkens, it wouldn't be that hard. The ceiling was lined with large tubes and cords of wire. It would be easy to hide and crawl along the tops of them. She'd done it enough times at home as a little kid when she wanted to escape the dreaded bedtime.

The door _whooshed_ open and Lilith felt a surge of triumph. _Victory for Lilith!_ She smiled to herself before crashing into something that knocked her flat on her back. Shaking her head Lilith glared forward then up and up and up. Her jaw fell open as she stared. _How do such tall Irkens exist_? She thought in amazement. The Irkens staring down at her had to be at least seven feet tall, her Pop was a few inches past five and he considered himself tall.

Peaking around from his Tallest the guard tried to see what had caused them to suddenly stop. Guard spotted girl, girl spotted guard. He hissed and lunged at her and Lilith scrambled back just avoiding his taser-stick. Free from the cage Lilith was definitely at advantage, the guard had the stick, but he was only about three and a half feet tall, where Lilith was a good two feet taller. Dodging the stick she gave the guard a good roundhouse kick, just like her Dad had taught her, and sent the Irken flying back.

Unable to let such an opportunity go, Lilith raised her hands up in celebration at her win upon which both were promptly seized and she was yanked upwards. With a yelp she came eye-to-eye with the two tall Irkens. Each one of them had her by an arm and held her up between them, curiously they tilted their heads chattering to each other. They poked her a few times making her squirm and instinctively kick at them, but their long arms held her out far enough away so she couldn't hurt them. After some more chattering she was set down and they let her go. Lilith kept the guard--still balled up on the floor--in her peripheral vision while she faced the two Irkens.

They wore different clothes from all the other Irkens she had seen. Instead of black leggings and a pink tunic they wore long skirts, thin segmented stomach pieces and round armor covering their chests. At the ends of their long hands they wore pill shaped gauntlets with two long fingers sticking out. Their outfits matched in every way but color, one outfit had purple as the main color while the other favored red, matching their respective eye colors. On their foreheads were odd pale green marks, in the shape of an hourglass with symbols in each half. They each had the same mark, but one was upside-down, the invert of the other's hourglass.

Something about them tugged at her memory, but she couldn't quite place it. They had to be important Irkens due to their height and garb, but Lilith didn't follow space politics and until recently she had been traveling out in the far borders of the known galaxy. These two Irkens were very different from the others she had seen, but then again she'd only had contact with a handful of Irkens, or any other alien species for that matter. Space was big. Really big. She could travel for weeks and not even pick up another ion trail. It just happened to be her luck that the ship that picked up her distress signal was Irken.

The red one tilted his head down slightly to stare at her, he chattered at her then waited expectantly. Lilith just stared back, she had no idea what he was saying. He frowned and with one long finger tapped on her head. Lilith hissed and placed her hands over her head protectively, narrowing her eyes at him. The tall red Irken turned to his purple counterpart and pointing at her, chattered at him then shrugged. The purple Irken chattered back with a shrug.

A chattering from behind them had all of them turning back to the entrance. A short Irken came in carrying Lilith's backpack. He was so tiny that the bag looked like it had sprouted short legs and antennae. Lilith couldn't help a small giggle at the sight, that was until the contents of her bag was dumped onto the floor. It was mostly full of snacks, a few clothes, and some random trinkets that she didn't have a place to put in the Voot. However, what concerned her the most was her precious spiral sketch pad. She dove towards the sketch pad, snatched it up and rolled to come back at her feet behind the taller Irkens with the door to freedom right in front of her. Wasting no time Lilith dashed forward clutching her prize to her chest. She didn't make it more than two steps before something clamped around her ankle and hoisted her upside down in the air. 

She curled around her notebook and squeezed her eyes shut, willing to protect it with her life and bracing herself for the attack she knew would come. When nothing happened she chanced a peek out of one eye. The two taller Irkens had their attention on the pile of snacks that had spilled out and were shooing away the shorter Irkens to get a good look at the goodies. The red one was holding her by the ankle with his PAK as she dangled forgotten in the air. Seeing an opportunity, Lilith tucked the notebook under her shirt out of sight. It clearly stuck out, her chest now a flat rectangle shape, but she knew from experience that Irkens could be endearingly oblivious sometimes. It was how she sneaked many things past her Pops, many things besides snacks of course.

After gathering up their share of the goodies, which was all of them, the two taller Irkens finally turned their attention back to her. Lilith did the best she could to look casual as she dangled upside down with a sketchbook shoved under her shirt. After chattering a bit to each other while they studied her, Lilith was surprised when she was slowly lowered to the ground and released.

Quickly she rolled to her feet and jumped back into a fighting stance, not trusting the Irkens for a moment and expecting an attack. It was awkward, but she managed to hold up both her fists while standing in a way that wouldn't make her sketchbook fall out from under her shirt. However, no attack came as the two sized her up while they chattered in hushed tones to each other. Confused, but wary, Lilith only slightly lowered her fists as she studied them in return, waiting for any sudden movements. The small Irken guard glanced between them anxiously ringing his small hands together. The two taller ones seemed to come to some conclusion and spoke to the guard. The guard paled, glancing quickly in her direction before rapidly chattering back at them, clearly distraught.

A sharp word from the red one silenced the guard and the purple one leaned over the guard speaking in low threatening tones. It didn't take an interpreter for Lilith to see they were not happy with being argued with. The guard hastily covered up whatever he said before obviously trying to appease them, it appeared to work as the two leaned back and made a waving gesture towards the guard. The two crossed their arms expectantly. The guard came towards Lilith very reluctantly, he chattered at her and gestured towards the two waiting Irkens.

Lilith glared and raised her fists back up at him. Frustrated the guard chattered more and gestured once more at the taller Irkens who responded with some impatient reply. Nodding at them the guard stepped closer, his attention on the taller Irkens and not her. Big mistake. Lilith roundhouse kicked the guard in the head, sending him sprawling backwards and leaving his taser stick within her reach. Snatching it up Lilith held it out hissing in defiance at the two Irkens. She wasn't going down without a fight. Now that she had a weapon she had a chance. However, the two looked more annoyed than scared. The purple one made a short noise and the red one sighed. Out from his PAK a mechanical arm came out, the end shaped suspiciously like a gun of some sort.

Lilith held out the taser in a desperate attempt to defend herself, but knew she would have little chance against a gun. She heard a hissing sound and swung the taser as a slight sting bit into her shoulder. Blinking she stared at them. That was it? That was nothing. She could just—

 

* * *

 

“Well, that takes care of that,” Red said kicking the taser away from the unconscious body. He quirked one antennae as he turned back to his mate. “Are you sure about this?”

Purple leaned over the female’s form as he munched on chips from her bag. “Yeah, this one is good.”

“The chips or the girl?” Red asked with a slight smile.

“Both,” Purple said tilting the chip bag towards Red so he could try some. Red didn’t hide his smile as he gladly accepting the offering. This was probably the biggest change in their relationship over the years, when Purple was in a good mood he openly shared his snacks with Red. Anyone else might think that them being mates and having a smeet would be bigger changes, but those people didn’t know Purple. Taking a chip Red had to admit that the salty flavor wasn’t bad.

“My Tallest?” the guard that had been attacked by the girl recovered and stood before them. “When should I have the drones come in and transport the slave?”

“Pet,” Purple corrected. “We’re going to make this one our pet. We said that already,” Purple said getting annoyed at having to repeat himself. “A cage should have already been prepared for her in our quarters. Transport her there.”

“Yes, My Tallest,” the guard said just barely hiding his concern as he grabbed the unconscious lifeform with his PAK legs and carried her away.

“Are you sure about this whole pet thing?” Red asked Purple for the umptheenth time.

“You’re the one who suggested it,” Purple glared back at Red, annoyed.

“Yes, but I didn’t think you’d take it seriously,” Red finally admitted.

Purple glared at him for a moment longer before shifting his gaze away. His antennae drooped a little as his eyes held a distant look. “It’s too quiet in our rooms.”

Red sighed, giving up and giving in. “Lets go get our new pet settled in then.” He had to admit that it would be nice to have a little more noise in their rooms.

When the natural born smeets were old enough, Maroon among them, they were sent to Irk to the new learning facilities for training and Irken education. As they didn’t have PAKs the natural born smeets needed to be taught many things and most of the Irken parents didn’t know how to teach.

After sending the first round of natural born smeets to the facility, it was quickly discovered that Irken parents did not have the capacity to completely cut contact with their smeets. Red and Purple were no different. They greatly missed Maroon and it didn’t help that Maroon was very upset at being sent away too, many of the smeetlings were.

It put a great strain on the learning facilities to have a population of smeetlings that acted out from anger and sadness to the point that they were just barely able to keep them under control. The Irken parents’ performances at their respective jobs also suffered greatly. Purple became highly irritable and after several destructive outbursts (that did not result in an intense mating between the two of them mostly because Red was not spared Purple’s ire) the Control Brains came up with the idea of part-time education. The smeetlings had to stay on Irk, but they would make contact with their parents after their daily training was finished. Also a rotation was created to let a group of smeetlings go back to their parents for seven days. Not all smeetlings could leave at once, so the rotation worked so that every four weeks the same group of smeets would be able to go back and visit, which pleased both Irken parents and smeets.

This system had been in place for one Irken year and 36 months, but everytime Red and Purple still missed their smeet, now young Irken Elite, for those four weeks he was on Irk for training. However, this time was different and Maroon would not return after four weeks.  

Since Maroon was the oldest natural born Irken and the most talented, he was able to get special permission to be assigned to a mission before he graduated the Academy. If he was successful then he would gain more privileges and glory before he graduated. Of course Red and Purple had no doubts that their offspring would be successful, however during his mission he wasn’t allowed any outside contact. 

In the last four weeks since Maroon had left they hadn’t received any calls from Maroon, but they did receive reports that he was well. So not only did they no longer receive daily calls, this was the week Maroon was supposed to be back on the Massive spending time with them. Purple was visibly upset at not being able to see his once-smeet.

Knowing that Purple was irritable, Red jokingly suggested that they get a pet while they waited for Maroon’s six month mission to be over and Purple took to the idea. It just so happened that their scanners picked on the lone ship. On a whim instead of blowing it up they picked it up. When it was reported that the creature inside didn’t seem to talk and was tall but less intelligent Purple said he wanted to take a look and see if it was “pet” material. Looking at the video feed Purple decided that he wanted the newly captured creature as a pet.

Red didn’t see anything wrong with the smaller, but not too small creature, and it resembled an Irkeniod form so it wasn’t completely hideous. Red agreed mostly because if this first month was bad, he could only imagine how it would be later. And Purple wasn’t the only one who was missing Maroon. Red also could feel a sense of emptiness in their chambers now that Maroon wasn’t coming to visit. Hopefully their new “pet” would help improve their mood and offer a little distraction.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lilith isn't mute, she just took to heart her Dad's words of never talk to strangers. Right now Lilith is roughly 15, while Maroon is 18. However Irken mental development is a little wonky and can be either fast or slow depending on the Irken. 15 and 18 are their physical ages and fairly close to their mental ages because natural born Irkens' bodies mature quickly, unlike cloned Irken bodies which can take much much longer and they are born pretty much 'mature'. 
> 
> Also in case you are wondering (and because I'm not sure if this is going to come up in the story at all) Zim picked out Lilith's name. Dib insisted on an Earth name for her since they were living on Earth at the time and pointed out a few baby name and name meaning web sites. Zim stumbled upon the name "Lilith" and didn't read past "steals/kills babies" before deciding. Remember the "plague of babies" episode? Yeah, Zim isn't fond of any baby/smeet/child beyond his own. So naming his own smeet what he thought meant "Baby Killer", seemed like a great idea to him. Dib for his part was just thankful Zim chose a normal sounding name, as Zim declared very early on that Dib had no naming rights. It was in his body so he got to name her. Dib believed he was just lucky that he had been able to convince Zim to choose an Earth name instead of something stupid like Chips or Glorpa or Yellow.


	3. A Pet's Life

Lilith opened her eyes. It took a moment longer for her brain to start processing what just happened. She was in a cage suspended from the ceiling that hovered just a few feet off the ground. Connected to the cage was a small hut with a door she would have to duck to get under, a quick investigation found that it was a toilet. On the other side of the cage was a tank of what looked like water with a small spout that stuck through the bars. Inside the cage with her was a large flat pillow, a fluffy blanket and a large bowl with a few packages in bright colorful labels. The room beyond her was extravagant with plush seating in red and purple colors. Looking around she finally noticed the two taller Irkens lounging on one couch lazily eating donuts.

Her rustling alerted them to her awakening and without pausing in their snacking the two hovered over to peer into her cage as they chattered to each other and gestured to her. Lilith hissed at them doing her best to look mean and intimidating. She didn’t bother speaking. There was no way they would know English and she didn’t speak Irken either. Besides her parents had told her to avoid speaking to Irkens at all costs.

The purple one laughed and pointed to her chattering to his counterpart. He then banged his gauntlets along the bars and cooed something at her. The sound was loud and obnoxious earning another hiss from her. Both laughed at her attempts so Lilith lunged forward, easily slipping her arm between the bars, startling the purple one into stillness and allowing her to harshly flick his forehead.

Yelping in surprise his hands flew to his forehead and Lilith dashed back inside her cage so she wouldn't get caught by the other one, but she had nothing to fear as the red one pointed at the other and howled with laughter. The purple one glared first at him then at her as he removed his hands, using one long finger to rub his tender forehead. He scowled once more before ignoring Lilith and hovering back over to the snacks where he hastily began eating. The red one cried out in dismay and the two began bickering over the few donuts left.

Lilith made a satisfied noise and sat back down. Luckily her sketchbook hadn't been discovered and neither had her small laser knife. Once free she could find a way back to her Voot and escape from Irken space. All she had to do was wait for the perfect opportunity.

Finally her waiting seemed to pay off as a call from another area of the ship had both Irkens sighing loudly and the two hovered out of the room. The main door opened and Lilith craned her neck to see out. There were two guards stationed outside of the door, both saluted the taller Irkens as they hovered by. The red one vaguely waved at them and before the door _swooshed_ closed again Lilith saw the guards shift back into their positions.

 _“Tsk,”_ Lilith clicked, no option there. No way would she be able to sneak past the guards. Hopefully she could find another option. Taking out her laser knife she cut away a round section from the bottom of her cage. The metal disk fell to the ground with a loud _clunk_ and Lilith dropped out. Her cage was only a few feet off the ground and she had to crawl out from under it.

Not wanting to waste time Lilith immediately searched the room. In the main living section she found no vents or exposed tubes that could offer escape. However, there were two other doors. The first led to a bedroom with a dresser and chest along the wall and a large bed in the middle. The bed was neatly made and on top of the deep pinkish-red bedsheets it was covered with pillows. The room was very organized, nothing out of place or on the floor. There were two doors, one led to a closet with hardly any clothing and the other led to a large cleansing room with a small pool filled with pink cleaning gel.

Ignoring the temptation to dip her hand into the stuff (Lilith's main guilty pleasure was taking long baths and her Voot only had a small shower attachment) she searched the room thoroughly. Nothing that could help her escape. Everything was seamless, no exposed tubing like in the ship's hallways and no ventilation systems to crawl into. So far this area of the ship only had air slits no wider than her finger which allowed for air recycling. Nothing she could use to escape.

Not willing to give up yet, Lilith went back into the living space and entered into the other room. What drew her eye immediately was the centerpiece of the room; a large suspended bed. Irkens did sleep, but rarely. The fact the red and purple Irkens had such an extravagant bed just added to their apparent privilege. They had to be very important Irkens to have a bed of this size.

The bed was unique. Instead of a large flat surface, it was like a hanging pod. Suspended from the ceiling the sheet cocoon held within a large flexible mattress piled with purple and red blankets and pillows. Curious, Lilith couldn't help creeping closer to inspect the inside of the hanging pod. The opening was large enough for her to stand in and the bed could easily fit several people inside. Just by pushing on the mattress a little Lilith could tell it was the highest quality. Probably Vortian made as they were known for making high quality couches and the like. Such a luxury demanded to be used and before she could succumb to the temptation Lilith pulled her attention away and studied the rest of the room.

“Hm,” Lilith whispered to herself. _Who lives in the other room?_ she thought. There was two of everything in here, one set in hues of purple, one in hues of red. Two dressers, two hovering chairs, two desks, two large pod-like chests for keeping random stuff in. For whatever reason the two red and purple eyed Irkens were sharing their bedroom space.

She wondered if they were a couple but shrugged it off and continued her inspection. She quickly looked around wanting to see what she could find in case the apparent third occupant of this living area came back. However as she searched her heart grew heavier with each passing moment. Nothing. She was truly trapped. There was no way for her to escape the rooms, there was no other way in or out except through the hallway door. Lilith slumped her shoulders, her antennae wilted hidden within in her twin ponytails.

So what now?

She could try to escape, attack the guards with her laser knife and possibly end up dead or worse. Or...or she could continue to be a weird pet/decoration for two, possibly three Irkens. Sighing Lilith left the bedroom and went back into the common living area. Maybe if she waited long enough a different opportunity would present itself and she could escape into the hall. Maybe they would be attacked and in the confusion she could escape. Maybe one time when she was left alone the guards wouldn't be stationed at the door. Lilith stood in front of her cage, resting her forehead along the bars. What options did she have?

Before she could truly decide a _whoosh_ came from behind her and Lilith instinctively ducked down. They were back. Panic stricken she quickly crawled under her cage and back up inside it taking the cut out piece inside with her. Frantically she searched for the blanket and placed it over the hole. She did all this before even chancing a glance up, at which she breathed a sigh of relief. The two had come back with a plate of donuts which had their full attention. They plopped down on the couch and continued to fight over the sugary treats.

Lilith made up her mind to wait for an opportunity. So she waited.

And waited.

And waited.

She knew the routine by now but couldn't find a crack in it. The two red and purple Irkens did seem to be the only ones living here. They didn’t enter the other bedroom and no one ever went in it. But the two would sometimes go into their own room leaving Lilith alone in the living room. For a least a few hours a day they would go out giving her a chance to explore and stretch her legs, but besides that they did the same things every day. They ate snacks. They watched shows. They ate more snacks. They had video phone chats with other Irkens. They ate snacks. It was all very boring and mind-numbing.

Sometimes they would watch her, mostly while eating snacks. At first Lilith just glared back at them, daring them with her eyes to try and do something to her, but they never did. They just watched her and chattered to each other. Eventually glaring became exhausting and she would just stare back at them, studying them as they did her.

Really! Why was she even here? Lilith was convinced that they were trying to bore her to death.  While the two mostly ignored her she had not been neglected. The small hut attached to her cage served as a tiny bathroom and food was given to her by a mechanical tube that dropped random bags of snacks into the big purple bowl. She assumed that they were leftover snacks because they never tasted that great and the flavors were odd but edible. The tank with what looked like water attached to the side of her cage, ended up being some sort of sweet liquid. She had no idea what it was but thankfully it kept her hydrated. When she was left alone Lilith used that time to eat, drink and use the bathroom. It felt awkward to do all that with them in the room.

Time further slipped by for Lilith. At first every time they left Lilith would sneak out of her cage to go over the rooms with a fine-tooth comb looking for any possible escape route. However, as time dragged on, Lilith eventually gave up. She no longer looked for ways to escape.  A month with no results had sapped all hope of escape from her, the next week she spent in a deep depression barely moving in her cage and only doing the basic necessities to keep alive.

But after that Lilith came to the conclusion that she didn't have it that bad. She had her sketchbook and would draw to pass the time. However she had to be frugal with space and often did multiple drawings on one page. She stayed quiet and sometimes chanced drawing while they were in the room. At first she sketched things from her memories, but dwelling on the past made her feel cold and shaky. So instead she busied herself with drawing Red and Purple, both from life (if she was quiet and they were busy) or from memory, often using the times when they were watching her as a chance to study them.

Then occasionally when Lilith was feeling bold and they left the room she enjoyed leaving the cage and having the room to herself. Despite constantly fighting over snacks there were always plenty lying around and as long as she avoided the donuts they never seemed to notice the few extra that went missing, those ones tasted much better than the ones thrown into her cage.

When the two left they were usually gone for a few hours. So Lilith had been bold one day and used the gel-bath in the spare room. It had been amazing and was now the first thing she did when they left. After which she would lounge around, sketch in her book and when the mood struck her she would practice the fighting moves her parents taught her. It was a good way for her to keep in shape and flexible. Like this three months passed since her capture.

Today when they left Lilith decided to try something new. Lilith smiled to herself almost buzzing with anticipation. The two were due to leave soon, their patterns so predictable to her now. When her captors left she would take a quick gel-bath and then she would do the boldest thing yet. Once the idea popped into her head she couldn't wait to execute it. She was going to take a nap in their pod bed.

Lilith tensed up as the communicator screen lowered from the ceiling. Red and Purple made a big show about stopping in their snacking as another Irken appeared on screen. Lilith couldn't make out much of his face under his uniform but at his words the two sighed, resigned and annoyed. They activated their hoverbelts and grumpily left the chambers. The guards outside saluted them as normal right before the doors resealed.

Now the space belonged to Lilith. Crawling out from her cage she went straight for the cleansing room. She kicked off her black boots, discarded her short black gloves and pulled the bright blue tunic over her head. Normal Earth females wore bras, but only being half-human Lilith didn't need one, her chest was flat and smooth and missing the nipples that were common to humans. However, she had just as many fingers and toes as her Dad, which she was thankful for as it made drawing easier. She pulled off the black leggings and underwear her Dad insisted she wore, letting them pool at her feet. Bundling up the clothes she placed them in the machine on the side that would clean them thoroughly in forty minutes. Lastly, she removed the very special bright blue bow in her hair and set it aside carefully on a shelf.

The second it was removed the skin tight hologram encasing her body shut off. While wearing the bow her skin was a tan color and her eyes looked very human with golden irises, like her Dad. Once the hologram turned off her mixed heritage was apparent. Her eyes, while remaining the same golden color, were just two pools of gold, Irken eyes. Her ears and nose also vanished as they were just hologram images.

Her flawless tan skin was now mostly green and covered in splotches and patches of tan. One patch covering most of the upper right side of her face. Before her Pop invented the hologram bow, Lilith remembered being compared to a cow by a child in her pre-skool. Of course that comment earned the boy a severe beating, which led to her first time getting kicked out of pre-skool.

In space there was no one to compare her to a cow, but it had been safer for her to travel as a rare and unheard of species instead of an Irken. Lilith was sure she was the only hybrid in existence and her parents insisted on keeping her heritage hidden. She had been told to never take her bow off, but she couldn't risk having the gel make it malfunction, so off it came.

Undoing the two long ponytails released her antennae and Lilith wiggled them in the air. Her senses always seem so heightened when they were free. Stepping into the warm gel, Lilith let out a long relaxed sigh and went right to the middle of the pool so she could sit and have the gel surround her. Tilting her head back, only her face remained above the gel. Taking a small breath Lilith fell back and laid along the bottom the gel-pool, letting the cleansing gel ease away all traces of sweat and relax her muscles.

She stayed under only for a short time before surfacing for a breath. Usually she would linger in the warmth, but today she had a new mission. If only for a half hour—the time it took for her clothes to finish their cleaning cycle--Lilith wanted to try out the Irken bed. Opening the cleansing room closet Lilith frowned at the dressing robe. It was a light material made for just this purpose, to wrap around oneself before changing into a new uniform. The dark reddish purple robe was a little long on her, the sleeves went to her fingertips and the excess material dragged on the ground. The only thing that fit was the width of it, she was able to wrap it around herself snugly. She felt silly, but no one was around to see. The only reason she wasn't going nude was because Lilith was uncomfortable being unclothed while walking around. She wasn't used to seeing her own skin, it was weird.

Checking the timer on the clothes, Lilith nodded to herself. She still had twenty-five minutes, it would be enough time to lounge around in the bed. She doubted her excitement would let her actually nap and she just wanted to stretch a little before going back in her cage.

The Irkens' bedroom was as messy as ever with personal items scattered around, but surprisingly each time she peeked into the bed cocoon there was no trash inside. Her heart-spooch buzzing excitedly, Lilith crawled into the bed's opening. Instantly she sank down into incredible, blissful softness. She rolled around in what had to be the most comfortable thing in the entire universe. Lilith laid flat on her back and waved her limbs out like she was making a snow angel, a wide grin on her face. The feeling was immeasurable.

 _This_ was what luxury felt like in its most grand, glorious state. And she, Lilith, was experiencing it! She felt amazing! Giggling from a blissful high, Lilith rolled onto her belly. Kicking her legs idly, she studied the interior of the bed cocoon. From the outside shape it would appear as if there were no horizontal place to lay, but the bed itself was so big that the center only dipped slightly. Along the sides among the mounds of pillows lining the bed. It was very nest-like.

Eyeing a particular fluffy pile of pillows, Lilith crawled over and pounced on them. She snatched up one pillow and buried her face in it, humming happily to herself as tension eased out of her body. She wiggled down into the softness and let out a happy sigh. If this was her life now, she should have let herself be caught earlier. Letting out a snorting laugh at her ridiculous thought Lilith kicked the pile of pillows around until she made a small barricade of them around her with the cloth wall of the bed at her back. Lilith snuggled her pillow closer in her makeshift fort and closed her eyes. She would just let herself rest while she waited for her clothes to dry. Yes... just a… few… moments… to rest.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I realize this chapter is short. I have the next one ready, I just need to do a final edit. It should be up either tonight or tomorrow. Also I'm ALMOST done with the next All I Need Is You chapter. That should be out this week as well. 
> 
> News: I'm working on a pateron where the rewards will be IZ themed but with craft items since I like to make stuff and write stuff too! I'll also use that to ask which stories I should focus on and take polls and such. The rewards will be like mini subscription boxes. It's up right now, but there isn't much on there except for examples. I'll post more on my Tumblr when I have it finalized. (Breeding Project Ask)


	4. Discovered

Something was slowly coaxing her consciousness back into awareness. Lilith didn't want to get up, not yet. She didn't want to do her chores just yet. Eventually Pop would send Gir in to wake her up, but until then she could sleep in the sweet bliss of her snugly bed. But something kept tugging at her senses. It was a sound. Her antennae twitched picking it up and recognizing what it was, but she was much too tired to be mortified like she usually would be. It didn't happen often that she caught her parents in the _act_ , but their spaceship wasn't that big and she _was_ part Irken. Her hearing was very good which was part of the reason she grew accustomed to wrapping her hair around her antennae.

The times she had caught them in the past made it so neither of her parents would so much as look at each other for at least a few days. During which Dad would ramble more than usual and Pop would be much louder with his random yelling. So if she stumbled upon them and they didn't notice her, Lilith did her best to quickly retreat and give them their privacy while doing her best to erase the memory from her brain.

Right now they didn't sound like they were _too_ into it, but they sounded close to her, in the same room close. Maybe she wasn't in her room, but napping in the common space and they hadn't seen her. She was too sleepy to move, but she had no intentions of continuing to listen to her Dad and Pop make-out.

“I'm here, you know,” Lilith said unmoving, her eyes still closed and her voice groggy from sleep. “Can’t you do that in your own room?” she mumbled loud enough to be heard. The sounds stopped so Lilith yawned and settled back down in her comfy space. Most likely they would both flee the room in embarrassment and let her continue to sleep.

“This _is_ our room,” the voice was annoyed, but too surprised to put much emphasis behind it. It was also most definitely _not_ the voice of either of her parents.

Lilith's eyes popped open and she was instantly awake. She sprang up, making a pillow that had fallen on her head go flying across the bed. Her antennae went upright and completely rigid and her face became frozen in an expression of horror. Her eyes were as wide as possible as she stared at the two Irkens. It was the red and purple ones, her captors.

Completely bare from the waist up the two stared back at her, equally shocked as she was. Their eyes widened when they saw her. In an instant Lilith's brain caught onto the horribleness of the situation. She had fallen asleep and greatly overslept. She was not in her cage. She was in their bed, with them, during an intimate time. And the most horrifying thing of all--which her brain alerted her to--was that she was both naked and exposed. Completely exposed. All she wore was a robe AND she didn't have her holo-bow on.

Red opened his mouth but before he could utter a word she bolted. However, it was extremely difficult to run on the universe's softest bed and Lilith was trying to keep her only means of cover on her body as she scrambled to escape. The only thing her brain had come up with was _'Get your bow and clothes and get back in the cage!'_ She flopped out of the bed's entrance and onto the floor very ungracefully, but wasted no time in lunging off the ground and propelling herself forward. This only caused her to smack face first onto the ground as the long robes were easily pinned to the floor.

Lilith's instinct to escape was overruled by her need to stay covered, so instead of slipping out of the robe and dashing for the bathroom, she balled herself up in as much of the fabric as she could and curled up into a tight little ball.

She was vaguely aware of being spoken to, but her panic was so intense that it made it difficult to process anything beyond her own fear. She'd been in some bad situations before, but _never_ had she felt so vulnerable and helpless. Something jabbed her side and she flinched with a whimper, curling up tighter and willing her forehead pressing against the floor to somehow let her melt into it.     

The opposite happened when she felt strong hands with long fingers grab her sides and easily lift her into the air. Lilith remained unmoving and terrified inside her cloth shell, her last line of defense. It barely registered to her that she was being carried back into the bed, nor did she notice how gently she was placed down. Words were spoken and she was poked a few more times, but Lilith remained in a panicked ball. The robe was tugged on in an attempt to uncover her, but she was balled up tightly in the fabric and nothing would make her release her grip.

There was a _tsk_ of irritation, but the thing that had Lilith snapping out of her frozen fear was the feeling of the fabric being cut along her back. Her last line of defense was broken! Sucking in a breath Lilith let out a panicked scream and began desperately flailing. The illusion of safety broken, Lilith was willing to abandon the robe in hopes for escape. She made contact several times, her flying fists and flailing legs knocking into the two.      

“ _ENOUGH_!” Red bellowed and an electric shock ran through Lilith's body rendering her momentarily paralyzed. However, the pain also helped clear her panic-stricken head. Her momentary stillness was taken full advantage of as PAK tendrils wrapped around her chest, pinning her arms to her sides. The robe, split down the back, hung loosely around her waist but still covered her lower half. 

Purple rubbed his cheek where Lilith's fist had caught him and he narrowed his eyes at her. Red took a deep breath, calming himself down now that she had stopped freaking out. He glared at her until he had her full attention. “Now, tell me--” 

“--I'm sorry!” Lilith butt in earning a scowl from him but she continued. “I won't leave the cage again. I promise.” She would promise anything if they didn't kill or torture her.

“Cage?” Red repeated frowning in confusion and turning to Purple for clarification, he shrugged equally confused. Red frowned a moment longer before his eyes widened in understanding. Needing to check for himself he stood up and began dragging Lilith along. However when she shrieked at the robe slipping down her hips he paused. Lilith waited expecting the worst, but he just set her back down before the robe could fall. “Pur, hold her,” he instructed.       

Purple's PAK opened as he nodded and Lilith was bound by his PAK while Red's withdrew. He dashed from the room as Purple studied her intently and Lilith swallowed. A short moment later Red came back and crawled over.      

“It's true, the cage is empty. There's a hole in the bottom big enough for her to fit through,” Red said.      

“Well, that explains how she got here,” Purple said with a nod. “But not this,” he waved his hand to gesture the length of her.

Red hummed in agreement. “Why do you look different?”      

“Why are you speaking English?” Lilith asked back. She was still terrified but her whole life had been about keeping her secret. She was not about to tell it now.     

“We're not,” Purple said defensively. “We're Irken. We only speak Irken.”     

“But--”      

“--Universal translators,” Red cut in. “But it needs a sample to work. You have to speak first. We thought you couldn't speak at all.”      

“And that you were stupid,” Purple added. “So we kept you as a pet. But now we have to kill you.”      

“What?! No! Why?” Lilith grew panicked and began struggling uselessly.    

“Because,” Red said beginning to grow bored. “You've been hearing our secret conversations this whole time.”       

“But I couldn't understand a word you were saying until just now,” Lilith said frantic.     

“Oh, that's right,” Red said thoughtfully scratching his chin. “But now that you can understand us we can't keep you as a pet.      

“What's going to happen to me?” Lilith asked as she slumped. There was no hope for escape now.     

“You never answered our question,” Purple said poking her in the side. “Why do you look more Irken now?”    

“I don't look Irken,” Lilith muttered as she slouched down further, scripted lies easily coming to her lips as she was questioned.       

“What about your skin color?”       

“It's just the lighting.”       

“Your eyes?”       

“I have an eye condition.”      

“Your antennae?”       

“I...” Lilith laid her antennae flat, hiding them in her hair, she wasn't used to them being out so she didn't have a makeshift lie for them. “I don't have antennae.”      

“Yes, you do!” Purple argued. “They're right here,” he said and in his irritation at her awful attempt at lying, he reached out without thinking and slid his two long fingers through her hair. When he found one of the stalks he hooked his fingers around it and lifted it up. “See?”      

Unable to move and because she hadn't been expecting it, Lilith froze when she felt his fingers sift through her hair. At the light touch against her antennae Lilith went rigid as a _zing_ feeling jolted though her body. When she groomed her antennae or when her Dad or Pop did when she was a smeetling, it had never felt like that. Then those fingers lightly curled around it and Lilith shivered at the sensation, unwittingly closing her eyes.     

“Purple!” Red blurted, completely shocked at his partner's actions.     

It took Purple a moment to understand, but when he realized _what_ he was _doing_ he immediately released her antennae and even withdrew his PAK tendril. Horrified at his own actions he hastily said, “I didn’t mean it.”       

Though she had nothing to hide, Lilith grabbed the fabric of the robe and pulled it around herself, hesitating slightly before pulling it over her head as well. When only her face was visible she stared down at her lap. Never had she felt so helpless, or exposed. But well... she didn't _hate_ the zing-ing feeling.       

“So, what are you?” Red asked quickly in order to move past the event.      

“Normal,” Lilith replied quickly.      

Red and Purple exchanged glances and Red sighed. “Either you answer or we throw you out the airlock. Without a suit,” he added when she looked hopefully at him.       

She slumped further and her eyes fell once again. “It doesn't matter,” she mumbled hopelessly.  “You'll kill me either way.”      

“Depending on your answer we might not kill you,” Red said crossing his arms.      

“What should I answer to not get killed?” Lilith asked peeking at him from under her robe hood.

Purple _tisked_ loudly and taking a firm grip on her shoulder he shoved her down onto her back. Pinning her in place, he loomed over her, “Now listen closely,” he began crossly. “We're the _Tallest_. We ask the questions and you answer them, got it?”      

“But--”     

“--Got it?” Purple cut her off squeezing her shoulder for emphasis.     

Lilith winced at the added pressure. “Got it,” she mumbled.      

“Good,” Purple said curtly. Leaning over her face he poked her forehead, “So, what are you?      

Lilith squirmed at bit in her robe cocoon, but she couldn't move much with her shoulder pinned in such a tight grip. Having Purple loom over her was making her insides feel even more squirmy. She made a face, her lips mashing together uncomfortably. She felt compelled to answer, but it went against everything she had been taught.      

“ _Irk_ ,” Red breathed. “You're so irresistible when you're dominating.”     

Purple snapped his head to his co-leader. “You're _not_ helping, Red,” he hissed.       

Lilith couldn't help the small tweak of a smile that formed on her lips. They suddenly reminded her of how her parents acted. It helped ease the knot in her throat. “Half,” she said softly drawing Purple's attention back to her, though she still refused to meet his eyes and looked off to the side instead. “I'm half Irken,” she said her voice barely above a whisper. It felt weird and foreign to say the words out loud.      

“Really?” Red said with interest and leaned over to place his face next to Purple's so he could study her closer. “You're pretty tall for being half-Irken,” he said.     

“My Dad's over six feet tall,” Lilith said.      

“Does that mean you'll get even taller?” Purple asked equally curious.      

Lilith tried to shrug, but only managed to shift one shoulder. “Dunno. Probably. I'm still in my growth phase.”       

“Growth phase?” Purple repeated exchanging glances with Red. “You're still a smeetling?”      

“I am not a smeetling!” Lilith said hotly, snapping her head back to glare indignantly at him.   

“I'm still growing, but I'm not a smeetling. I'm almost done maturing physically. I should be finished with my growth phase within the year or so.

“Physically?” Red asked picking up on that distinction. At his question Lilith broke eye-contact. “What about mentally?”

“I'm not a smeetling,” Lilith repeated stubbornly.

“But you're not an adult, either,” Red supplied. Lilith pouted but didn't agree or disagree. Red rolled his eyes, but he let the matter drop. “So if you're half-Irken what's the other half?” 

Lilith was about to give a smart-mouthed reply until she saw the look on Purple's face. “Human,” she answered obediently.       

“Human?” Purple muttered thoughtfully. “Why does that sound so familiar?”       

Red shrugged, “Must be from some small backspace planet that wasn't worth our time.”

“Yeah, but how did a backspace planet get a hold of Irken DNA? It couldn't have been an natural birth, all the activated Irkens that have partners are accounted for. And the Irkens that didn't are under close observation. The Control Brains would have contacted Irk if one of them had gone missing,” Purple said then after a pause added, “I didn't even know other species were compatible.”

“I was made in a test tube,” Lilith said not waiting for Purple's prompting. “Sort of like cloning but with added DNA. Dad and Pop were also clones and Pop said it means that I am even more amazing because it took that much more effort to make me. I'm one-of-a-kind,” Lilith said with pride remembering Pop's proud face when he told her that.

Red sighed, “There's no guarantee of that,” he said rubbing his forehead as he tried to ward off a headache. “We're going to have to let the Control Brains know that someone is creating hybrid Irkens, we can't have them making an army of soldiers to combat us.       

“Dad and Pop were only able to make me,” Lilith said a little sad, she had wanted siblings.       

“How come?” Red asked.     

“Dunno,” Lilith said. “They just said that it was a rule.”     

Red pressed his lips together as he thought, “Well, regardless we still have to take you to the Control Brains. They'll decide what to do about you. You should...where are your clothes?”      

“Being cleaned.”       

“Go get them on,” Red said and Purple pulled back to let her sit up. Red smirked at Purple, “we should get dressed too.”       

Lilith carefully crawled off the bed, eager to be back in her clothes, but before she went too far she turned back to the two, “Sorry I interrupted your intimate time together,” she said then scurried out. 

 

Purple's antennae shot straight up and his face flushed blue. In the confusion he had forgotten about that. He turned a horrified expression to his partner.       

Red chuckled at his face, “good thing she woke up pretty early on. I was so eager that I forgot to see if the pet was napping. I know you feel weird about mating when she is awake. I just… when you yelled at that general, _Irk,_ Pur, I love it when you're demanding,” Red purred, leaning over to slip his hand around his mate's waist and lightly brush his tongue along the underside of Purple's chin.       

Purple shivered, as Red knew he would, but he caught Red's tongue with his two fingers and gave him a hard look, “Not the time, Red, and especially not around a smeetling.”      

“She knew what was going on, she said herself she wasn't a smeetling,” Red argued wrapping his tongue around Purple's finger.      

“She's smeetling enough,” Purple replied grabbing firmer hold of Red's tongue to pull him closer. “So you'll just have to wait,” he said softly as he lightly brushed his tongue against Red's. Red leaned in closer wanting to continue, but Purple released him and quickly dodged Red's grabby hands as he rolled to the end of the bed. Clipping on his hover belt, Purple began picking up his discarded robes and began dressing.     

“Tease,” Red accused, but he wasn't upset by it and followed suit.      

They left their room just as their pet left the other room fully dressed again and--“Hey!” Purple said pointing at her. “Why is your appearance back to that?”      

“What do you mean?” she asked feigning innocence. “I've always looked like this.”      

Growing annoyed Purple hovered over to stand directly in front of her and peered down at her face. “You didn't have this before,” he said going to poke her nose, and his finger slipped right through the illusion.       

“Hmm,” Red said nudging Purple out of the way so he could get a closer look. “That's some pretty advanced holographic technology.”       

The girl's chest swelled with pride, “My Pop made it for me and Dad created the program, er—that is... he would have if it was a disguise, which it’s not. I told you it was the lighting.”       

Purple rolled his eyes and waited for Red, who was still curiously inspecting the hybrid-smeet. “Ahh, here,” Red said triumphantly and plucked the small blue bow from her black hair. Instantly the disguise fizzled out.      

“Hey! Give that back,” she demanded and made a grab for it, but Red held it high up out of her reach. She made a good jump for it but still couldn't reach as Red hovered higher. “That's not fair!”     

“I say what's fair,” Red taunted as he dangled the bow lower. She made a grab for it again only to have it yanked out of reach.      

Purple sighed as Red continued his immature display while teasing the smeetling. Red hovered around the room while the girl chased after him. For a moment Purple was reminded of Maroon when he was a smeetling. He studied the girl during his moment of melancholy and he made a shocking discovery.       

“You don't have a PAK.”      

“What?” Red said stopping his game to stare at Purple then down the the girl who was still trying to jump up and grab her bow. “That can't be, she's a clone,” he said forgetting about the bow and letting his PAK store it much to the girl's protests. He hadn't been lying when he said the technology was interesting, he'd never seen a holographic disguise so realistic and form fitting. He wanted to see what he could learn about it later. “Clones are too weak, they need a PAK to function. Only natural born smeets can survive without one,” Red reminded Purple who just continued to point at the girl's back.      

Needing confirmation, Red grabbed the girl's shoulders and spun her around so he could see her back and feel along her spine. Still not believing it, Red lifted up her blue tunic trapping her head and arms in it. She gave muffled protests and squirmed around, but Red had a good hold on her. Like her face, the girl's back had the two skin tones, tan and green both in distinct patches and her skin was soft and smooth with no evidence of any PAK ports. “You're right, there's nothing,” Red said amazed and finally let her go so she could fix her shirt.      

She gave a final tug at it while glaring at them. “I could have told you that. You didn't need to get so grabby.”     

“He's always grabby,” Purple chimed in with a smirk.      

“You like it,” Red replied cheekily.       

“Ugh,” the girl rolled her eyes. “You guys flirt worse than my parents.”       

That comment startled both of them and they stared at her. It was true they were being very flirty in front of her. They only acted like this when they were alone, _never_ in front of other Irkens. Maybe it was because they were used to her presence as their pet. Not sure how to respond to that Red cleared his throat.      

“Enough with this, let's bring you to the Control Brains,” Red grabbed the hybrid by the shoulder and led her towards the door. Purple fell into step next to him.       

“Sirs!” the guards saluted sharply when the doors opened, they didn't say anything but their eyes widened to a comical size when they saw the girl between them. Red didn't explain anything. Firstly, they were the Tallest and didn't need to. Secondly, it would be good to let them sweat a bit, to wonder how the Irken got in, it would keep them alert for a while.      

They walked in silence for a moment before the girl spoke up.      

“What happened to my Voot?”  

“That hunk of junk?” Red asked, the ship they captured her in could hardly be called a Voot. It had probably at one point been an Irken issued Voot but so many parts had been taken off, replaced and added on that it had looked more like a pile of parts than a ship. “Either it's been tossed aside somewhere or it was scrapped for metal.”        

“Scrapped?!” she repeated alarmed and jerked out of his grasp. She bolted, but luckily Purple had been quick to react and in one fluid motion scooped up the hybrid and wrapped her in his PAK tendrils.       

“We don't have time to go chasing you around the ship,” Purple said and continued towards the Control Brains with the pouting hybrid securely wrapped up.

“Nicely done,” Red said.

Purple gave him a quick glance. “This isn't the first time I've had to catch a smeet that slipped out from under you,” he said with a small smile.

Red frowned until he realized that he was making the same pouting face the hybrid was. Shaking his head Red sighed in defeat, “You got me there, Pur.”      

When they entered the Control Brain room, the three brains hummed to life and Red did his best to hide his proud grin at the hybrid's obvious awe as they hummed into active mode.       

“ _Tallest Red and Purple,_ ” the Center Control Brain lit up as it spoke, “ _We were not expecting you. For what reason have you come here?_ ”

“We're come into possession of this Irken-hybrid that was successfully cloned and does not need a PAK,” Purple said placing the girl down in front of him.

“ _Oh?_ ” the Center Brain said as a scanner appeared over the girl. Purple withdrew his PAK tendrils from around her so the scan could be completed. The hybrid blinked and squinted as she was bathed in a bright pink light. “ _She is not a clone,_ ” the Left Brain said as the light vanished.

All three Irkens gave a startled “What?” response.       

The Right Brain hummed a moment. “ _We know of the existence of this hybrid. However, our records indicate that she was extinguished in a spacecraft explosion. How is it that this information was incorrect?_ ” the Right Brain asked and Red and Purple turned towards the hybrid, whom had gone quiet and still. She stared unblinkingly at the floor.       

“Hey,” Red nudged her. “Answer them.”     

The touch broke her out of her thoughts and she glanced at him before staring back down. “I don't know,” she mumbled then lifted her head to the Control Brains. “What do you mean I'm not a clone? My parents wouldn't lie to me. They told me I was created in a lab.”       

“ _We are displeased by this incorrect information_ ,” the Left Brain said ignoring the girl's question. A screen dropped down as the Control Brains made a call to an Irken Red and Purple knew well.      

The short Irken that answered the call had his head bowed as he answered, “Esteemed Control Brains to what do I--”       

“Uncle Mik!” the hybrid called out in surprise. 

Purple and Red's jaws dropped and stared between the Irken on the screen and the hybrid.      

Head Medic Mik lifted his head in surprise, his antennae standing up right. Upon seeing the hybrid his antennae immediately fell back into a relaxed state as his eyes welled up with big fat tears. “Little Lilith, you're alive!” he exclaimed and began crying uncontrollably.       

Red and Purple exchanged looks at the name, they hadn't even known the hybrid's name and it was highly disrespectful that the short Irken should accuse the girl of being smaller. However, the hybrid--Lilith--didn't seem to mind and she smiled warmly at the crying Irken.      

“Yes,” she said.   

“Why didn't you try to contact me?” Mik cried and shook his communicator screen in desperation.       

“I...” Lilith hunched her shoulders and looked away, growing quiet once more. “I made a promise,” she said barely above a whisper.      

“Wait an _Irken_ minute,” Purple cut in angrily. “How come we, the _Tallest_ , were not informed of the existence of an Irken hybrid? Huh?” he glared at Mik, who suddenly sobered up and began glancing around anxiously.      

“ _This matter did not fall under Tallest jurisdiction,_ ” the Center Brain said. “ _It is the duty of the Tallest to rule over all of the Irken Empire. Our duty as the Control Brains is to ensure the continued survival and thriving force of the Irken race. The hybrid was not part of the Irken Empire, but was an experiment necessary to the survival of the Irken race._ ”

“What's that supposed to mean?” Purple waved his arm around angrily, demanding answers. “Didn't we already solve that problem years ago?”

“Oh, yes,” Mik said quickly. “We are no longer in danger of running out of viable Irken DNA. And the newest generations of PAK-less smeets is of great value to the survival of our race. However with our empire expanding our Invaders are coming across environments and atmospheres that are proving difficult to thrive in. The species of those planets have had years of evolution to adapt to the planet-specific environments and become immune to certain elements that are harmful to us, whereas we as a species have had little evolutionary advances since the PAKs were first implicated. Thus it was proposed to harvest such genetic elements and incorporate them into our own DNA to create the next generation of Super Irkens!” Mik said enthusiastically throwing up his hands for emphasis.

“And this is what you came up with?” Purple said unimpressed and gesturing to Lilith.      

“Hey!” Lilith protested.      

“Ah, well,” Mik lowered his hands. “The idea to create natural hybrids came up and fortunately there was one pair that could assist in the experiment. With a little negotiation they agreed to cooperate in creating a hybrid.”       

“I was an experiment?” Lilith asked in a soft voice.      

Mik saw her sad expression and fumbled over his words in trying to comfort her, “Er, well, it started out that way, but your parents were great caretakers and cared for you deeply. They never called you an experiment and while you were artificially inseminated, you developed like a normal smeet. The agreement was just to see if it was possible to create a successful hybrid between two species but your parents had intended on raising you as their smeet from the start. It wasn't until--”       

“-- _We requested you be brought to Irk for Irken training_ ,” the Left Brain cut in. “ _They fled with you and after years of chase we finally received word that their ship exploded and no lifeforms survived. However, that information is obviously incorrect. So we ask again, how did we receive such incorrect data?_ ”       

“I don't know,” Lilith said stubbornly. She felt a lot better knowing that her parents did love her and it also made a lot of sense and many oddities clicked into place. The first being their hasty departure from Earth and all the secrecy rules they made her promise to make. Lilith frowned, a few of those promises had already been broken and she felt sad knowing that due to her own mistakes she'd done exactly what her parents had been trying to prevent with their lives.       

“ _Answer unacceptable_ ,” the Right Brain said and zapped her with an electric probe.       

Lilith yelped at the jab from the tendril that had caught her off guard. She rubbed her side where the probe zapped her, narrowing her eyes she hissed at it. It sprung forward to zap her again, but Lilith was prepared this time and easily dodged it by jumping up and grabbing a low hanging wire. Again the Control Brains tried to zap her into submission but Lilith evaded and hissed angrily.

“ENOUGH!” Purple shouted in a tone that was so similar to Pop when he was angry that Lilith dropped down out of instinct and shuffled over to him feeling properly chastised. He stood in front of her with his fists plated on his hips. “Now,” Purple began sternly. “You will explain yourself.”

Since he was using _that tone_ Lilith felt a strong compulsion to obey and wilted under his stare, “I don't know how I survived,” she mumbled. “There were sirens and alarms that woke me up. Dad came into my room and dragged me to the Voot. He made me make a promise then...” Lilith took a shaky breath as she tried to keep the tears back. She had desperately tried to push this memory back for the past year. “I don't know what happened but the next thing I remember is looking out from the Voot a-as the s-ship...a-as it...” she couldn't bring herself to finish and tightly closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around herself.      

The memory was too vivid, it was like she was there inside the small Voot again, watching as everything she loved vanished in a flash. She could feel the shaking of the Voot from the blast and the eerie silence of it all. Pop had done something to the controls and all she could do was watch the broken pieces of her once home became smaller and smaller as she was carried farther away. Then the cold seeped in.       

She felt cold. So cold. Dark and cold. The cold seeped into her very bones, until it numbed her and she felt nothing. There was nothing but the cold, harsh, silent, dark. Lilith curled into herself. She hated this, she wanted to escape it. She didn't like this feeling. She hated it. But it wouldn't go away. It would never go away. It was always there and she hadn't thought about it in so long that she forgot how she had escaped it. How could she hope to escape the cold dark? She couldn't. All she could do was give up. Give in. Let the dark take her away until she felt nothing, saw nothing, not even the dark.

 

       

Purple stared down at Lilith and used the same tone he used to make his once rowdy smeet cave in and submit. It worked and she began obediently telling them her answer. However, as she spoke Purple could sense something was wrong. When she grew silent and wrapped her arms around herself Purple loosened his stance. Her body seemed to be caving in on itself as she hunched over.   

“Hey, hey,” Purple said tilting his head to look at her face. Her head was tucked down so he used his two fingers to tilt her head up. She moved to his ministrations easily and he tapped her forehead. Her eyes slowly opened halfway, but their bright yellow color was dulled. He pressed his finger against her cheek, but quickly withdrew it. “Her skin is like ice,” he said noting how the green patches of her skin were becoming pale.      

“She's going into shock,” Mik said alarmed. “Bring her to the medical bay immediately, I'll send them instructions and I'll get there as soon as I can. Luckily, I'm not far and we have one of the new hyper-ships available and I can be there in a few hours,” he said then cut transmission.      

“ _We will continue this conversation later_ ,” the Center Brains said. “ _Ensure her survival and wellbeing, Tallest Purple, Tallest Red,_ ” they instructed before going back to inactive state.       

Purple glanced at Red briefly before scooping up the unresponsive hybrid and together they hurried to the med bay.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mik's back! Everyone's favorite oblivious adorable medic! You can imagine how thrilled the Tallest will be at having him back on their ship.
> 
> So in case you are wondering why the tallest aren't super upset at finding Lilith, firstly she is tall enough to be of interest to them. If she was a shorter they would have thrown her out of the airlock in an instant. She also doesn't look like a threat at all. so they're more of like "huh? what's this weird creature doing here. this seems interesting." There are also deeper instincts at play going on, which is kind of explained later, but the basic idea is that a species instinctively wants to protect its young. 
> 
> Poor Lilith has done her best to live and survive but the trauma and grief is finally catching up with her.


	5. Broken Promise

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey Sorry this took so long! to make up for it, I almost have the next chapter done and I do have some free time this week to write (Finally). My goal is to get one more chapter of this and Space Step Dad out this week! (For realz this time) 
> 
> Also Thank you so much for the love I am getting from new and old readers! Every time I get a comment It really makes my day and fuels my desire to keep writing!!!! <3 <3 <3
> 
> Also see my end notes, I have a question I need opinions on.

“Shouldn't she be over the shock by now?” Purple asked sounding impatient though Red knew that was only to cover up his worry. Mik explained that PAK-less Irkens sometimes had difficulty coping with extreme emotions as they had no emotional filter. Smeets are especially prone to shock, which is why it is the job of the adults around them to show them how to handle those emotions. Red and Purple hadn't encountered handling this kind of shock before because their smeet had a pretty stable smeethood.          

The hybrid, however, had experienced a very traumatic event and had no adults around to help manage her emotions. Mik had been surprised that she was only going into shock now. But after thinking it over he hypothesized that her body delayed the shock until it knew there would be adults around to help care for her, after all the Irken survival instincts are very strong.           

“Her color has returned to normal,” Mik said checking over his results and nodding to himself, pleased at her progress. “Her sugar levels have returned to normal as well. I will definitely have to share these results with the Control Brains. It is simply amazing that with her height she managed to survive this long on such a sparse and low-sugar diet. The snacks reportedly fed to her were the lower sugar ones that were rejected from the snack imports, but even those would be too low in nutrients for her. I image that she was sneaking a few of your snacks to help supplement her diet.           

“What?” Purple glared. “She'd been stealing our _snacks_?” the thought of his favorite snacks being eaten had him glaring at the hybrid.           

“Did you notice any going missing?” Mik asked.           

“Well, no,” Purple admitted.           

“Then it wasn't an issue was it?” Mik said and Purple flushed feeling a little ridiculous. Mik nodded and went back to his results. “I took some samples and ran a few tests, from the results I can say she has been consuming less than half the sugar that a normal Irken of her height would need to consume and her diet has been this way for 1/10th of an Irken year, which would be a year of her Earth time.”          

“But we only found her three months ago, so you can't blame her malnutrition on us,” Red said. “Besides we didn't know she was Irken until today. She had been using a disguise.”          

“Oh,” Mik's antennae sprang up and he turned to face them. “I didn't mean it like that, my Tallest,” he said quickly. “I just want to emphasize how amazing this is. Just think of the good this can do for our race!” Mik said excitedly as he beamed at them. However, his smile faltered as they continued to stare at him. “You… don't see how this could benefit us?” he asked slowly.          

“Why would starving ourselves of snacks be a good thing?” Purple asked           

“My Tallest, what would happen if the Massive failed to receive the next shipment of snacks?” Mik asked pointedly.           

Red and Purple shuddered at the mere thought. “We'd have only days left, maybe weeks if none of the crew ate.”           

“Exactly,” Mik nodded. “But if you had Lilith's ability to conserve energy, that food supply if rationed properly would last you three times as long maybe longer. It would definitely be enough time for help to arrive or the situation to be corrected. My Tallest, there is a very logical reason why the taller Irkens rarely leave Irk or the Massive, they need more sugar and such a supply is not possible on far away planets, except for Foodcourtia of course.”          

“I see,” Red said looking at Lilith in a new light. “If taller Irkens needed less sugar to survive we could have taller invaders and they could go out farther and explore those unreachable areas of space.”    

“Exactly,” Mik nodded. “I also know from her Earthanoid parent that Lilith has a stronger resistance to toxins and pollutants which are harmful and even deadly to our race.”          

“Super soldier, huh?” Purple mused staring down at the girl. “I can see why the Control Brains would want her back. So why would her Irken parent refuse? I assume that the Control Brains wanted to send her to Irk to train with the other PAK-less smeets. If she is as capable as you say then surely she would be promoted to a high ranking position, especially with her height.”        

“There is that possibility,” Mik nodded, but his antennae wilted. “However, there was also the possibility that because of her hybrid nature the Control Brains would not treat her as an Irken and she would become little more than a lab experiment, or...” Mik took a shuddering breath. “Or she would be made into a breeding drone.”           

“Breeding drone?” Purple repeated snapping his head around to glare at Mik. “What exactly is a breeding drone?”           

“Um, well,” Mik rung his hands together and kept his eyes downcast. “It's not something we have in place at the moment, but the idea was mentioned by the Control Brains at one point to have drones for the sole purpose of smeet-making.

“Natural smeet making?” Purple asked with a deadly tinge in his voice, one that was making Red very nervous.

“Er, um... _yes_ ,” Mik said in very small meek voice.           

“I see,” Purple said in a calm, but cold voice.          

“Where are you going?” Red asked as his partner turned to leave.          

The look on Purple's face had Red swallowing nervously. Only once before had he seen such an intense look on Purple's face, however this time it was much more sane but increasingly furious. “I'm going to talk to the Control Brains,” Purple said simply and left.          

Red let him go and he let out the breath he had been holding once Purple was gone. Turning to the fearful specialist he gave him a weary smile, “Well, if that was an option before, it won't be now.”    

“Yes,” Mik swallowed looking relieved, though Red couldn't tell if it was from the fact that Lilith wouldn't have to worry about that fate, or that Purple had left the room.          

Not too much time had passed before Purple returned looking pleased with himself in a dark sort of way. “The Control Brains agreed that nothing of Irken descent should be forced into smeet-making, though finding appropriate partners for the PAK-less Irkens to bond and mate with will be something to be concerned with in the near future. Also, Lilith has been recognized as a taller Irken and will be treated as such.” Purple went to the hybrid's bedside and studied her face intently. After a moment a frown appeared on his face.          

“I don't understand,” he confessed after a moment. “Why am I so concerned about a single Irken? Her? Why do I care?” he looked to Red for answers, not understanding his own mind.           

Red frowned in return, he also felt this weird compulsion to help the hybrid. “Maybe because we kept her as a pet?”           

“My Tallest, I might have the answer to that,” Mik offered. When both turned to him expectantly he cleared his throat and continued. “My hypothesis, as I have also experienced this need to protect her, is that it is because she is still a smeetling. You have felt this emotion towards your own smeetling, very understandably, and probably to a greater scale, but I believe it comes from an old instinct to protect our young. Normally an adult Irken would have no contact with smeetlings, so this type of situation doesn't happen, but when around the young of a species most adults of that species feel the need to help and protect them. It is a basic survival instinct you see, protect the young so that the next generation can thrive.”           

“That makes sense,” Purple nodded accepting the explanation as he watched the sleeping Irken smeetling. He did feel this odd protective feeling, similar to his own smeetling, but not as strong. “We'll personally bring her to Irk,” he announced.           

Besides him Red looked startled for only a moment before he nodded. “It will give us a chance to surprise Maroon when he returns. We can make it into a surprise inspection of the training facility for natural born smeets.”           

“That is an excellent idea, My Tallest,” Mik said.          

“I know,” Red rolled his eyes. “We thought of it.”

“M-My Tallest,” Mik began slightly nervous. “Would you allow me to accompany you to Irk? I am also scheduled to inspect the generations of PAK-less smeets and see how their growth is going. A-And I would like to stay near Lilith to aid in her recovery.” Previously, Mik had been making visits to the Irkens whose smeetlings were no longer with them, as they joined the Junior Academy. He wanted to see how those in Union bonds were doing after years of being mates.           

“Ugh, fine,” Purple said reluctantly. “Just don't do anything to upset us.”           

“Yeah, your special privileges have been long revoked. No asking us for reports and no barging into our space,” Red added.           

“Of course, My Tallest,” Mik said brightly. “I will stay mostly here in the medical bay.”          

“Good,” Purple nodded. “We have other matters to attend to and we need to set our new course. Alert us right away when she wakes up,” he instructed and Mik agreed quickly.           

Out in the hallway Red paused when the path split.           

“I'm going to go to the hanger. I want to take a closer look at the Voot she came in with. I'm fairly certain it's still there. It was such a hodge-podge of parts and pieces that the tech drones didn't see any reason to use it. They might have been using it for parts, but some should still be intact. I want to see if there is anything like that holo-bow in there,” Red said pointing with one long finger down the hall.          

Purple nodded, “See you back in our chambers.” He hovered down the hall towards the command center.          

Red made his way over to the hanger and was pleased to find that his suspicions were correct, her ship was still there and mostly intact too. He stepped closer examining it. At first it looked horrible, a seemingly random mess of parts, but as he studied the ship Red's eyes widened. Every part had a purpose, the core of the ship was a Voot, but it had been greatly modified. There were parts from various crafts from a wide range of technology, all somehow fused together to make this junk heap function. 

It was an ugly thing, almost spectacularly so, but the genius behind it was extraordinary. Every part on this ship had been modified and tinkered with so it all fit together and worked to boot. Circling the ship Red's excitement grew, he itched to take it apart to see how all the pieces fit together. First thing first, he wanted to see how many different alien technologies were making this thing work and if he could identify their origin and purpose.

 

* * *

 

When Lilith awoke, it was like swimming through a thick fog. She recognized light as she blinked and stared up at the ceiling, but her mind was empty. Slowly her consciousness waded through the fog, bringing with it her old and recent memories. She felt detached from them like she was watching a movie of her life. Turning her head she saw Uncle Mik typing away on a nearby screen with his back to her.           

She blinked again just watching him. He looked smaller in person, she'd never seen him in person before. Their conversations had always been through video chats. It was her Dad who told her he was her uncle, on Pop's side of course, and that he was a doctor and called in a lot because he was so worried about her health and life. Dad told her to talk to him as much as she wanted because her Uncle felt bad that he couldn't come and visit her. His job as a space doctor was very demanding and he never had any vacations.          

But now she knew the truth. He wasn't her uncle. He was a scientist and their 'chats' were just updates on how the 'experiment' was going. Lilith might have felt outraged and betrayed if she could feel anything at all. As it was the truth just made her feel even more numb. Everything made so much sense. Why her parents left, why she wasn't allowed to talk to other aliens, why she had always been told to hide her nature even out in space where there were so many weird beings.          

Her parents died trying to protect her. They never intended for her to end up here, to just be another experiment. Among all the lies, one truth she knew was that her parents loved her. They lied to her, but they loved her. They fled into space for her and when the ship exploded they saved her. Yet here she was captured by Irkens and soon she would become an experiment for them to test on. She'd met her grandfather enough times to know what happened to rare scientific specimens. She would be researched until no more information could be gathered and then she would be dissected.    

She didn't want to die and she wasn't going to let her parents' sacrifice be in vain. With a quick scan of the room she made a plan. Uncle...no... Mik the scientist had his back turned towards her, his attention focused on the screen in front of him. She was familiar with the types of tubes to the side of the room, her Pop had several in his lab. She'd been placed in time-outs in them many times during her smeethood. Quietly as possible she crawled out of bed. Mik must have heard her or the lab sensors detected her movement because he turned towards her as she rushed at him. His initial relief turned to shock as she barreled into him, grabbing him and tossing him into the tubes. She slammed her hand down on the locking button as he sat stunned inside.          

The hiss of glass locking him in place snapped him out of it. He began flapping his arms and speaking rapidly, but the speakers were turned off. Despite the lies Lilith wanted him to know why she attacked him. She used to think of him fondly. It had been nice to be able to talk to someone about her parents in a frank manner and he always gave her his full attention.           

Lilith pushed the communication button and cut though his words with her harsh voice, “You're not my uncle,” she said sharply silencing him. “You lied,” before he could reply she cut off communications and fled the medical bay.              

As soon as the door opened she jumped up, grabbing onto the wires lining the ceiling. She crawled up above them and was surprised to find enough room for her to sort of crouch run along them. She was careful to stay on the large stable wires and tubes as she made her way down the hall, slowing her steps when Irkens passed underneath her so she wouldn't make too much noise. She'd run a long distance and still hadn't made any progress. This ship had to be massive. If she didn't get her barring and find a way to an escape ship she'd be done for. It stung deeply to think she would have to leave behind her sketchbook, but she knew her time was short. It wouldn’t take Mik long to escape and send a search team out for her. Besides she had no idea which way it was back to her cage.         

It felt like she had been running forever and her anxiety increased with every step, expecting an alarm to go off any second. Finally she reached a cross section of the hall and noticed a few plaques along the side. Laying down and squinting to see the lettering Lilith concentrated so she could read the Irken words. She couldn't speak or understand their odd language and her Pop refused to teach her for whatever reason, but he did teach her how to read it. She wouldn't have been able to work anything on the ship or lab if she couldn’t read Irken.           

With a sigh of relief, she found one sign pointing the way to the hanger. Turning she ran along the thick wires stopping at every cross section for directions until she reached the door she had been searching for. The next challenge was getting inside and stealing a ship without anyone noticing. There was no one in the long hall and she had a feeling this would be her only chance to sneak in, but she had no idea what would be waiting for her on the other side.           

Steeling her resolve, Lilith took a deep breath and swung down from the ceiling to land in a crouch in front of the door. Sensing a body, the door opened and Lilith hugged the corner peeking in. Her jaw dropped at how immense it was inside. When she was dragged from her little ship she had been more focused on trying to get free from her captors than paying attention to her surroundings. A skyscraper could probably fit inside here both standing up and on its side. A whole army of spaceships could fit inside here which, Lilith mused, is probably why it was so big. It _needed_ to fit an army inside.           

Quickly scanning her surroundings Lilith saw a stack of open crates filled with parts that she could easily hide behind while she planned her next move. There were some Irkens scattered about the hanger, but they were currently at the far end working on repairs. Stealthily, she made it over to the crates and ducked down behind him. As she was searching for the best possible ship to take her eyes fell upon an unmistakable sight; her ship. Her breath caught in her throat and she couldn't stop herself from being drawn to it.  It was quite obvious that a lot of the parts were missing and not just the ones that were broken and led to her getting captured in the first place, but the Voot serving as the cockpit was still intact.           

She placed her hand on the lock and the hatch popped open letting her inside. Even though it was only the Voot it was the only piece of home she had left. Lilith curled up in the pilot's seat and felt the will to escape leave her. The ship she was on was huge and filled with Irkens and all their ships. Even if she did manage to sneak into one and steal it, she doubted she would make it out the hanger much less away from the ship. Even then they might just shoot her down. Escaping was a stupid plan. Even if she did escape, where would she go? What would she do? Fly aimlessly in space for the rest of her life until the loneliness drove her insane?          

Lilith eyed the bright red button on the consul. She'd already broken so many promises to her parents, surely they'd understand this one. At least this way she might have a chance of seeing them again if there really was an afterlife like Dad said, and if not then she wouldn't have to feel all the bad feelings anymore.

Before she could act a sharp tapping on the glass made her jump.           

Lilith gasped when she saw Red standing outside her ship. One of his PAK legs continued to tap on the glass until he noticed he had her attention. He waved and pointed to the ship, but the glass was sound proof and too thick for her to hear what he was saying. However, she didn't need to hear to know what he wanted. He wanted her to open the door. She had no hope of escape now. She was fast, but he had a PAK and he could easily stop her from leaving. Her element of surprise was gone. She didn't want to become an experiment and be locked away forever, to be poked and prodded and experimented on until she was dissected. Her parents didn't want that for her, that's why they fled Earth. They surely wouldn't be upset with her if she pushed that button now.           

Leaning out of the seat she pressed the self-destruct button and was almost surprised with how steady and calm she felt. A red warning light came flashing on and the automated system announced that the self-destruct sequence was starting. Lilith curled up into a ball in the chair and closed her eyes. She felt numb and tired, but relieved. Soon it would all be over and she wouldn't feel anything anymore or she'd finally be reunited with the only ones that loved and cared for her.            

She ignored the rapid tapping on the glass as the countdown reached ten. Lilith wrapped her arms around herself and imagined her parents hugging her once more. Soon. _Five. Four. Three. Two--_

Glass shattered, metal screeched and sparks flew as the countdown was suddenly cut off by Red's PAK leg slamming through the cockpit window right into the console. Lilith's eyes popped open at the sound and she stared in horror at the broken machinery in front of her. Whatever his PAK leg destroyed had also canceled the countdown. Her eyes traveled up the PAK leg to meet the furious red orbs glaring down at her. Lilith tried to sink further into the seat and let out a squeak of surprise when the PAK leg jerked once then twice to free itself and retreat back inside Red's PAK.           

“Get. Out.” He spoke with harshly bitten words and Lilith could tell he was holding back even more anger. Despite not wanting to anger him anymore, she was too scared to move. “ _Now_ ,” he hissed and Lilith let out a startled whimper. Not even her parents had ever looked this mad or scary. There was no _way_ she was going to go to him. She shifted and made as if to lean forward, but instead she rolled to the side and dove for the back of the cockpit towards the door that would lead to the small living quarters attached to the Voot. She'd just made it to the door when she felt the PAK tendril latch onto her ankle. Mercilessly, it dragged her back and she scrambled to find something to latch onto, but she couldn't get a good grip on anything.          

A loud smash behind her made Lilith flinch. She chanced a look back and saw that Red had shattered more of the front glass with another PAK leg. The hole was now big enough for her to fit through. She tried to escape with renewed vigor but another tendril wrapped around her stomach. As it dragged her back Lilith caught a look under the pilot seat. With a flutter of hope she saw the taser she'd thought she'd lost a long time ago. She could have sworn she'd looked under the seat too. She had just enough time to grab it as Red hauled her out of her small ship.

“Why on _Irk_ did you engage the self-destruct when you were still inside?” Red snapped, his PAK holding her up in the air so they were eye level. “Are you trying to die?” he meant it sarcastically but when he met her eyes he recognized that look. “No,” he whispered as old memories surfaced along with the intense anger.           

Lilith met his rage filled eyes firmly. “I will not be an experiment!” she shouted and flicked on the taser, holding it against the tendril wrapped around her. Both Red and her cried out in pain as the electric shocks ran through the metal of Red's PAK tendril. Sparks flew and the taser's power was magnified by the wiring contained in the PAK. To save his PAK from short circuiting Red disengaged his PAK tendril, dropping it and the hybrid to the floor.           

The moment the taser's energy rebounded from the metal into her, Lilith felt her body seize up from pain which made it impossible for her to let go of the trigger. Pain seared across her stomach where the metal was wrapped around her and it felt like she was being burned alive. She was saved by being dropped to the ground, the impact causing the taser to get knocked from her hand. Cocooned in pain her vision darkened as her body slipped into unconsciousness.           

Red felt his breath come in uneven waves as he quickly did a system check on his PAK. Luckily, nothing had been badly damaged, his tendril taking most of the damage. The metal was blackened from the electric charge and he knew it would be useless now. He'd have to have a new one installed. He glared down at the unconscious hybrid. He had no idea what was going on in that mind of hers to make her try to self-destruct. ****

Unwinding the useless PAK appendage from around her, he frowned at the now burnt shirt she wore and lifted it up to inspect the damage. He hissed in sympathy and in anger at the red and raw ring around her middle. She had burned herself pretty good, her uniform protected her skin from complete destruction, but it didn't stop the horrible burn from the electrocution. The pain or the shock seemed to have knocked her out, for that Red was grateful. He picked her off the ground, holding her in his arms because using his PAK extensions to hold her wouldn't be good for the damaged skin. 

Having heard the commotion several drones in the area came over but Red shooed them away. He also told them to leave the ship as it was, he wasn't done inspecting it yet. In fact he was more than a little annoyed that the hybrid had forced him to wreck the console and damage any interesting information about the makeup of the hodge-podge ship. When she was awake he'd definitely be questioning her about where she'd had the modifications done and who had put them together.            

“I found her,” Red said into the communicator that popped out his PAK. On the screen in front of him Purple nodded. Right before he saw her come in the hanger Mik sent out an emergency message to them that she had escaped. Purple was the one to suggest that Red should stay there and see if she tried to take a ship out.            

“Good,” Purple said. “I'll meet you in the med bay, I'll tell Mik.”          

“She tried to kill herself,” Red said not bothering to hide his anger.           

With good reason Purple looked a little guilty, but it only lasted a moment. “I see,” he said slowly. “I'll let Mik know that as well. Do you know why?”           

“No,” Red snapped. “She got in her ship and when I tapped on the glass she hit the self-destruct button and she didn't even try to escape, she just sat there. I had to destroy the control panel to stop it. When I tried dragging her out she electro-shocked my PAK extension, it's useless now by the way, and she burned herself too.” Red paused a moment. “She did say something about being an experiment.”           

“Maybe Mik will have a better idea of why she's suddenly acting crazy and how to fix it,” Purple said. “I'll update him,” he said then ended the transmission.

****

* * *

 

Red huffed in annoyance and snapped at all the drones that stared as he walked down the hall towards the med lab. He could have used his hover belt, but his angry energy needed an outlet. When he entered the med lab, Mik and Purple were there waiting for him.           

“Place her here, My Tallest,” Mik said tapping a medical table. Red set her down and Mik lifted her shirt to inspect the damage and run a handheld scanner over the mark. “Luckily, the damage is only skin deep. It will heal completely in a week or so,” he said and took out some healing gel to help start the process.           

“Why so long?” Purple asked. Natural born Irkens didn't heal as rapidly as PAK Irkens, but a week was still a long time.          

“Her body does not regenerate as fast, but that is also why she can go longer without sugar, her cells do not need to be replenished and replaced as often. However, I will recommend that she increases her intake for the next few days to aid in her body's healing,” Mik said and used his PAK legs to gently roll her over and apply the gel onto her back.           

“So how are you going to fix her?” Red asked.           

Mik gave him a slightly confused look as he stored the rest of the gel away. “The gel will be sufficient for the healing, it will remove most of the pain as well.”           

“No, I mean about her acting crazy. One moment she shuts down and the next she's trying to escape only to try and blow herself up,” Red crossed his arms.          

“Ah, well, um,” Mik began nervously. “I believe that a part of the issue is that she is angry at being lied to. As you know the Control Brains and myself have been aware of her existence, they were the ones to start the hybrid project. She is the first and only subject from that trial. To keep track of her natural progress and growth I had to frequently check in with her. In order to receive honest data, I did not tell her I was a scientist.

“She knew me as a distant relative to her Irken parent. I was told that customs on the planet she was born made it acceptable for distant DNA sharing individuals to inquire about her health and daily life experiences. She knew me as her Uncle Mik, but finding out that all of this has been a lie for the sake of observations has no doubt caused some emotional trauma.” Mik sighed heavily. “Despite her height she is not quite at the peak of her growth that would mark her as an adult. Her emotional regulation and thought processing has not fully matured yet and without the aid and guidance of her parental units her emotional state is becoming unstable. That is my theory, anyway.”           

“So how are we going to stabilize her?” Purple asked           

Mik blinked, he caught the use of 'we' in Tallest Purple's question and he wasn't sure what to make of it. “If her parents were still alive I would suggest reuniting them, but since they are dead I am unsure how to create stability for her.” Mik frowned in thought. “I can confer with the Control Brains, but I might have to create a chemical that acts like an emotional stabilizer would. However, it would take many trials to find a mixture that works efficiently.”          

Red saw his mate looking at the hybrid with concern and an idea occurred to him. “Does she need her parental units, or do you think another pair would work to help balance her?” Red asked. “I've helped balance one Irken already,” he said slyly grinning at Purple, who didn't look amused. “She couldn't be any worse than Purple. Besides she'd been living in our quarters for a while now. Instead of the cage she can stay in Maroon's room. We're the Tallest, we're the greatest Irkens and the greatest Irken parental units so therefore we'd be the best choice.”          

Mik blinked in surprise. “Well, yes, I suppose that having surrogate parents watch over her while she matures would be the best course of action. I would still like to look a little more closely into her biology, however. A chemical balance may still be needed and having Lilith here in person would offer me the chance to run some more tests on her physiology.”          

Purple sighed loudly. “See what the Control Brains say, but I agree with Red. We're going to take over the care of the hybrid,” he said and scooped up the unconscious figure.           

“My Tallest, where are you taking her?” Mik asked.          

“Back to our rooms of course,” Purple rolled his eyes. “I hate staying here longer than I have to. You healed her, she's fine. She can sleep on our bed while the drones fix up her new room. We can put Maroon’s items in storage for now. We'll send you a message when she wakes up,” Purple said and left the medical bay without waiting for Mik's response.           

In the hall Red caught up with him and walked leisurely at his side. “You're fine with being her parental unit?” Red asked.          

“You said it yourself, we're the Tallest, we're the best the Empire has to offer. If anyone is going to fix her brain-meats it's us. Besides,” Purple's lips turned up in a small smile. “It will be fun having a smeetling around again.”           

Red studied the almost-adult smeetling then glanced at his mate beside him. “If it had been possible, would you have wanted another one?”

Purple looked down then glanced back at Red briefly. He didn't answer until they reached their rooms and he placed the hybrid down in their bed. “Maybe,” he admitted finally, a hint of sadness in his voice.          

Red nodded, understanding his partner's actions a little better. “She'll be fine here while we set up her room,” Red said.          

“Yes,” Purple agreed then turned. “Let's go, I want to make sure the drones set up everything correctly.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Lilith, the trauma is finally catching up to her. Irken parental instincts are strong with this couple. They'll be able to help. Next chapter soon! 
> 
>  
> 
> So I will be going to Disney at the beginning on the next month and I want to make a little Maroon plushie to go with the Tallest ones I made last time. I'm planning to making a picture log of the Tallest with little Maroon as their first "Family Vacation". (On my Tumblr are pictures I took last time during their "Honeymoon") 
> 
> Question: What is the best place to post the pictures? Should I stick to Tumblr, or move onto Instagrm?, Deviant Art?? Or is there a way I can make a "Vacation Diary" here? There is a way to add pictures on AO3 right? (if there is can someone tell me how????) OR i do have a google pics album with some pictures from this stroy. I feel like my stuff is all over the place. Any ideas on an easy to update/organize place to put all my images from this story? HeLP! I am bad with the technologies and social medias. :( 
> 
>  
> 
> (side, side note, should I put the Tallest as made-to-order plushie sets on my etsy? I was also thinking of making a how to make them video series maybe on youtube???)


	6. Foster Parental Units

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In celebration of the new Zim movie! Here is the next chapter! I'm working on Space Step-Dad, that should be out early next week.

Lilith came alert with a start, her last memory becoming a dream that jolted her awake. Her surroundings confused and disorientated her only because she expected to wake up in a lab or on a medical table. For a moment she thought that the whole thing had been a dream from falling asleep on the Irken bed. However, the faint throb around her middle let her know that it hadn't been a dream. She was also surprised to find that her burn from the electrocution had been tended to and bandaged.

Why heal her? How did she get back here? Did they want a healthy specimen to start experimenting on? Was she just being held here until a cage in lab could be set up? She hadn't been able to escape this area for three months so there wasn't much of a chance she'd escape now. Whatever the reason she couldn't stay on the bed. She had to find some way of escape, to truly escape from everything. She was scared. So scared of what would be done to her. And she was lonely. So lonely. She wanted to be with her parents. She'd broken all her other promises, but Lilith didn't care. She couldn't be strong on her own anymore. Everything had been taken from her. She was suffering enough, she didn't want to spend the last of her days being tortured too.

Lilith slipped off the bed and felt inside her boot. Her laser knife was still there, taking it out she held it in her hands. Unknown to her, her movements had set off the monitoring system alerting the owners of the room to her awakening. They in turn sent a message to the medical bay and Mik immediately dropped everything to rush over. 

The door opened before Lilith could think of a way to proceed and her head snapped up fearfully. Red and Purple walked in, saw her and moved towards her. Panic-stricken, Lilith turned on the laser knife and held the point out to her neck.

“Come any closer and I'll kill myself,” Lilith shouted out in warning.

The two stopped short and Red narrowed his eyes, anger and past memories consuming him. Hissing he stepped forward ready to attack the stupid Irken smeetling and literally smack some sense into her, but with a loud clank Purple's metal gauntlet hit his chest blocking him. Red glared at his partner, but his anger lessened when Purple kept his calculating eyes on the unstable smeetling. Red knew that look. Purple had a plan, a devious one. His anger dissipating, he relaxed and waited to see what Purple was up to.

“Why is killing yourself a threat to us?” Purple asked casually, almost sounding bored.

The determination on her face faulted a moment before she answered, but the knife didn't lower, “I'm a test-subject, an experiment.”

“So?” Purple countered as he casually moved towards the other side of the room. Because Red hadn't moved or said anything Purple held her full attention and her gaze followed him.

His flippant attitude was confusing her and the knife faulted for a moment. “What do you mean 'so'? I'm an experiment,” she emphasized the word. “You need me alive to do... experiments and stuff.”

“Do we?” Purple scoffed. “And what could we possibly gain from experimenting on you? You're only half-Irken what data could we possibly gain from you?”

The knife lowered a little more as a helpless sort of confusion settled on the smeetling's face. While she was distracted by her own thoughts Purple gave Red a meaningful glance towards her. Red nodded in understanding. He began walking in the opposite direction. His movement instantly drew her attention and she studied him warily as he too walked around like he was bored and needed something to do.

“We have the greatest technology, the largest army, our people are perfect,” Red said. “Why are you so important that we would need you?” Both Tallest knew that the smeetling was unstable, if she had been thinking properly she would know that they had been working at keeping her alive and well. They just had to get her guard down enough so they could get closer and disarm her before she did something drastic.

“Then...why...” her attention fully on Red she didn't notice Purple slowly closing the distance. “Why did we have to run?” she asked her voice getting louder as she spoke. “Why did we have to leave home? If I'm not important why did they have to constantly protect me? For what reason did they die?!” she shouted growing increasingly more emotional and on the verge of tears as she waved the knife around. 

“Why couldn't I go with them? Why was only I left behind? I WANT TO BE WITH THEM!” Gripping the knife she pulled it back fully intending to plunge it into her own neck. Red lunged forward, but it was unnecessary. As her hand came back Purple latched onto her wrist and painfully twisted it so she instinctively let go of the knife. The moment she let go the laser blade fizzled out and fell harmlessly to the floor.

She shrieked in rage and flailed wildly trying to get away and go for the knife, but Purple held fast and kicked the knife towards Red, who picked it up and placed it safely in his PAK. She shrieked and screamed and thrashed in Purple's grip. Purple just remained calm and held her out from him so he wouldn't get hurt. Eventually she exhausted herself and the screams turned into whimpers and she went lax in his grasp. Purple let go and she slumped onto the floor.

The room to their chamber opened again and Mik rushed in, concern etched into his expression when he saw Lilith. However, Red held up his hand to stall his approach.

“Why do you want to die?” Red asked as Purple came around to stand next to him, together they studied the hunched over form. 

“Why should I live?” she countered finally looking up, her yellow eyes seemed dull in color and her voice was hollow. “I've broken all my promises. And if you really don't want to do experiments on me, dissect me and then kill me, why did we have to flee? We lived for three years traveling the stars, always on the move. But if I didn't need protecting then they didn't really have to go into space. Then our ship wouldn't have malfunctioned and they wouldn't have chosen to save me instead of themselves. My parents are dead because of me. I don't have the right to live and...a-and...” tears welled up and she tucked her head back down and wrapped her arms around herself. “I m-miss them s-so much,” she sobbed. “I-I'm tired of p-pushing it away.”

“Push what away?” Purple asked gently, his voice vastly different from his bored tone. They were finally getting somewhere with the young Irken. Her actions were making a lot of sense now.

“The hurt,” she answered through her tears. “It hurts so much,” her voice became strained and hard to hear so Purple bent at the waist to listen. Her arms unwrapped themselves and clutched the fabric at her chest. “Like there's a hole inside, a jagged black hole sucking everything in. I tried,” she whispered squeezing her eyes shut. “I tried to push it away and when the numbing dark came it helped. It numbed everything until it didn't hurt. I was able to forget for a while. I had my Voot. My promises. I moved. I worked. And the pain stayed away. But now it's back,” her eyes opened and she stared down at her chest, her face contorted in pain. “I have nothing left. It hurts.” She looked up, her dulled eyes meeting Purple's. She saw him, yet she didn't see him. “I don't want to feel anymore. I want to be with my parents. I want to go where they are. I don't want to be alone.”

Mik couldn't take it anymore. His eyes were large with tears and with an anguished wail he ran over and wrapped his short arms around Lilith's neck. His PAK legs shot out too and embraced her as he rubbed his face against the side of her head. “Little Lilith,” he wailed and grabbed her face squishing her cheeks as he turned her to face him. “It's all my fault! I should have tried harder. I couldn't convince the Control Brains. It's my fault you had to flee. Your parental units did protect you! They were not wrong in their thinking that fleeing was the best way they could protect you. But you are not alone anymore! I will do everything I can to fix you. I will find a way to eliminate your pain. I will use all my scientific knowledge in order to erase your pain. I will—”

“—That's enough,” Purple grabbed Mik by the back of his PAK and picked him up. Mik let his PAK legs hang down as his Tallest pulled him away and then dropped him to the floor. Purple scowled down at the medic. “You're going to make things worse. Using drugs will take too long.” He turned back to Lilith who watched with a detached look on her face, though Mik's words seemed to at least create a semblance of an interest.

“Hybrid-Lilith,” Purple addressed the Irken and she looked up at him. “If the Control Brains had followed through with their original plan you would have been taken to Irk and given training, but it would only have been to test your abilities. Once your strengths and limitations as a hybrid had been calculated they would have taken you deep into Irk to become a breeding drone.” That seemed to get through to her and her eyes widened. 

He saw her tense as fear settled in, but before she could react Purple continued. “However, that is no longer the plan. I spoke to them and they changed their minds. You may be a hybrid, but we Irkens are amazing and anything that has our DNA is equally amazing. So even though you have inferior DNA you are still Irken and you will be recognized as Irken. You will be given all the respect and privilege that a natural born Irken has and due to your height that means a lot.

“As an Irken it is still your duty to go to Irk and receive training. At the Junior Academy you will study and train to find your place in the Irken Empire. Succeed and do well and you will be greatly rewarded. Irkens with PAKs start training the moment they are activated, but natural born smeets have to stay with their parental units until they are matured enough to be sent to the Junior Academy. Because of your unique circumstances,” Purple glanced at Red and he nodded. “We have decided that until you readjust you will stay with us on the Massive. Red and I will be overseeing your developmental stages in the place of your parental units.”

The dullness from her eyes cleared and she blinked. Purple could also see her mind working, absorbing his words and what they meant. “So...” the skin between her eyes wrinkled in concentration. “You're going to be like my foster parents?”

“Foster parents?” Purple repeated never having heard the term before.

“Ah,” Mik said scrambling to his feet and back over to them. “Yes, just like that,” he said to Lilith then turned to his Tallest. “It is an Earth term that refers to parental units who take care of offspring that are not theirs, but still treat the offspring like they were their own.”

“Oh,” Purple said, “Then, yes, we'll be your foster parental units.”

“Why?” Lilith asked looking between them then turned her eyes to Mik. “Why do you only care what happens to me now?” she asked, anger leaking back into her voice. “Why couldn't you convince them to help me earlier? Why did you lie to me all this time?”

“I tried,” Mik said his antennae drooping behind his head. “I tried many times to persuade the Control Brains, but I have no authority over them. My personal opinions do not factor into their calculations and I cannot disobey my orders.”

“How come he was able to change their minds?” Lilith asked pointing to Purple.

“I'm the Tallest,” Purple said crossing his arms haughtily.

“What?” Lilith asked turning back to him.

Purple smiled smugly. “That's right, Red and I are the Tallest.”

Lilith continued to frown at him, obviously not as impressed as Purple expect her to be. “What does being tall have to do with anything? Could you not reach the Control Brains or something?” Lilith asked Mik growing irritated at how ridiculous that was. “You have PAK legs, couldn't you have climbed up higher or stood on a box or something?”

“Ah, um,” Mik rung his hands nervously and exchanged worried looks with his Tallest who couldn't believe what they were hearing. “Little Lilith, what do you know about Irkens? About our society?” Mik clarified.

Lilith looked down and suddenly became aware of how dangerous it was for her. “Pop didn't like to talk about his past much. It made him sad. But, um, Dad told me some things.”

“And?” Mik prompted gently but he couldn't stop the feeling of foreboding.

“After leaving home we avoided other Irkens at all costs,” Lilith said focused on lacing and unlacing her fingers. “Dad said that Irkens are greedy, self-centered and all they do is destroy everything they come in contact with.”

Mik gasped, scandalized, “He said that even about your Irken parent?”

“Well,” Lilith peeked up at Mik. “He wasn't really wrong. Pop did like destroying stuff. Pop loved me and Dad, but Pop wasn't allowed to talk with the other aliens when we bartered for stuff and my parents did fight a lot about other stuff too.” 

“Like what?” Purple asked.

“Oh, um, stealing, killing, and destroying stuff. Pop never saw anything wrong with doing those kinds of things, but Dad was a good person and he believed in being good to others. Most of the time Dad was able to convince Pop to stop, but sometimes he didn't and then they would fight a lot.”

“What do you know about Irk? About the Armada? About Irkens?” Red asked.

“Irk is where Irkens come from. The Armada is the Irken army that travels around destroying stuff. And I know how to pick an Irken out in a crowd and how to avoid them and get away in a fight.”

“That's it?!” Purple exasperated. “What in Irk's name was your Irken parent thinking?”

“He was thinking about keeping me safe,” Lilith said in a small but defensive voice. She studied Purple carefully. “Pop was five and half feet tall, so he’s not that short compared to other Irkens. I know my parents did all they could to keep me safe. So how come the Brain thingys listened to you and not my Pop?”

“Your Irken parent was a taller?” Red asked curious, he exchanged a quick look with Purple. There weren't many Irkens that tall and they knew of none of them that had gone missing or died recently. “Who—

“—The Tallest is a title given to the tallest of the Irkens who then become the leaders of the Irken race,” Mik said cutting Red off and moving to stand in front of Lilith. “The only reason you are safe now is because Tallest Purple was able to talk to the Control Brains and they listened because he is the Tallest. The Tallest did not know of your existence before and I had no authority to tell them. You are safe because it was they who found out about your identity. If you had been discovered by any other Irken your fate would have been that which your parents feared.”

Lilith's eyes widened and she shyly peeked around Mik to look at them. “If you are the leaders then what are the Control Brains?”

Purple sighed and began rubbing his temples. “She really doesn't know anything, does she? Adjusted or not, she can't go to the Junior Academy like this,” he said and pulled a reader out from his drawer.

“What are you doing?” Red asked as Purple began tapping away at it.

“We're going to teach her everything that her Irken parent should have,” he said.

“Pop taught me plenty,” Lilith said hotly and finally standing to glare at Purple. “He taught me how to fight and build stuff and fly the ship and everything I needed to know to survive. Why would he have bothered to teach me useless stuff about a race that picks leaders based on a stupid thing such as height?” Lilith said balling up her hands into fists as she stood defiantly in front of Purple.

Behind her Mik gasped.

Purple narrowed his eyes at her and swung his hand back to pass the reader to Red. He drew himself up to his full height and glowered down at the defiant smeet. “What did you say?”

“I said,” Lilith sneered. “That it's stupid to become a leader just because you're tall. A leader needs to be responsible, smart, charismatic, fair, hard-working, level-headed and strong.”

“And I suppose your Irken parent is all those things?” Purple said crossing his arms. If there were Irkens out there that believed they could be a better Tallest he wanted to know about it.

Lilith's anger was knocked away, startled by the question. “What? No, Pop would be a horrible leader,” Lilith answered honestly surprising Purple. “He's selfish, hot-headed and very impulsive. Pop rarely thinks things through and he never takes any criticism well. He's a terrible listener,” Lilith lamented thinking back to a lot of instances in her smeethood when Pop messed things up because he didn't listen all the way.

“Yet you were quick to defend him,” Purple pointed out. From her description it sounded like she didn't like him.

“Of course,” Lilith said. “He's my Pop. He's all those things, but he was also the one to teach me how to read Irken, how to fight, he taught me a lot about building and inventing and all kinds of fun stuff. He's the first to yell at me but he's also the first to yell at others when I'm in trouble. He's very protective of me and Dad, he'd do anything to keep us safe. He also likes playing video games with me, though he usually cheats,” Lilith couldn't help smiling, “but then again so do I. He taught me that I'm capable of anything I put my mind to. Anything I want to learn he'll teach me, even if he grumbles about doing so. He actually complains a lot, but Dad says that Pop has a hard time being honest with his feelings and when he complains about doing something it means that he actually likes doing it. Because if he really didn't want to do something, he wouldn't. In fact I think the only person that can persuade Pop to do something he doesn't like is Dad.

“Dad is smart, like really smart. He's just as good as Pop when it comes to building stuff and fixing things; he just does it a little different, more calculated and precise where Pop is really creative with his ideas.” Lilith grinned widely at Purple as a memory came to her. “This one time Pop had an idea for a new ship upgrade that...” Just as quickly as the grin appeared, it faded as she trailed off. Her eyes slid down to the floor as she wrapped her arms around her middle.

Seeing the pained expression on her face Mik stepped forward. “Lilith,” he began flustered. “Are you hurting? Are your wounds bothering you?”

Purple watched as tears filled the smeetling’s eyes before streaming down her cheeks. As the medic grew more and more anxious Purple felt a new and odd emotion sweep through him. This smeetling had spent her whole life outside of the amazing Irken society. She never knew what it was like to be surrounded by her own kind and as a hybrid she might not truly ever know that feeling. So the only place she felt a sense of belonging was with her parental units, which were now dead. 

She spent so much time alone and afraid, constantly fleeing from dangers she barely understood. Then she was captured by the very enemy she vowed to avoid. What had her thoughts been like when she had been their pet trapped in a cage these past months? What terrors had she imagined knowing that her greatest enemy was all around her and that one slip up could throw off her disguise? And now she thought death was the only option available to her, yet they denied her that as well.

Purple glanced at his co-leader and saw a similar worry etched onto his face. The hybrid fell to her knees and she looked so... small. It was odd, Purple didn't feel more superior at her seemingly smallness, no, he just felt... bad. It almost hurt his spooch thinking about it, like he had suffered what she had, which was just ridiculous but yet he couldn't get the feeling to disperse. Convinced that this was some deeply rooted and previously repressed species survival instinct compelling him to take care of the smeet, he bent down and scooped up the young Irken and placed her on his bed. 

Instinct or not, he wasn't about to sit on the floor. She didn't seem to notice or care about being moved. Purple sat next to her in the opening to his bed and shifted so her head rested in his lap. She remained curled up in a sobbing ball as Purple gently stroked her head. The long black fur on her head was surprisingly soft. He removed his gauntlet and used his entire hand to smooth down the soft strands. Her antennae were buried somewhere in the black mess, so he wasn't too concerned about accidentally touching them. But even so, when his smeetling was young smoothing down his antennae on his head seemed to relax him.

The weight on the bed shifted as Red sat down next to her curled up feet. He also removed his gauntlet and crooning softly rubbed her back where her PAK would have been. Red had done this with Maroon too when he was upset about some thing or another. 

Mik watched in amazement at the display of Irken parental instincts. He’d heard from Irk that the Irken staff at the Junior Academy and those living in the quarters on Irk also displayed protective and attentive behaviors towards the natural born smeets and smeetlings, even if the Irkens did not have any smeets themselves. The instincts to protect and care for a smeet was truly amazing, even the Tallest were caring for a smeetling that wasn’t their own and a hybrid at that!

Eventually Lilith calmed and stopped crying. She looked a little startled when she became aware of her surroundings again and hastily sat up placed her hands in her lap and stared down at them with a faint blue tint to her cheeks.

“Do you feel better now?” Purple asked. 

She nodded slightly, still staring down at her hands. “Am I…” she started to say in a soft voice, barely auditable. “...are you really...” she glanced quickly at Purple before looking down again. Tucking up her knees, she rested her forehead on them and though her voice was slightly muffled they could hear her fine, “I don’t have to hide anymore?”

“No,” Red answered, placing his hand on her shoulder. “You’re Irken. You are a part of the greatest race in the universe. There is nothing you have to be afraid of.” 

“Mm,” she made a slight noise which sounded like a positive acknowledge. Lifting her head she peered down at Mik over her tucked up knees. “Sorry, I pushed you into the tube and locked you inside...Uncle Mik.”

The Head Medic’s eyes widened and grew watery. Purple recoiled at the way his lips trembled in what he imagined was going to be a horridly emotional display. Wanting to stop that at all costs Purple scoffed, “You don’t have to apologize for that. You have no idea how many times I had to resist the urge to jettison him out the airlock.” 

At that Mik gasped in shock which caused Lilith to giggle. Feeling a little more relaxed she lowered her feet back to the floor. Her smile didn’t last long as she frowned in slight worry and turned her head to Purple. “What’s going to happen to me now?”

“Now we’re going to show you how to be Irken and what it means to be part of the greatest race in the universe,” Purple said grinning and gesturing between himself and Red. 

“Right, and when we get to Irk and after you’ve taought you all you need to know about being Irken, we’ll enroll you in the training facilities there,” Red added. “With your height you’ll obviously do well and the Control Brains will be able to assign you a place in Irken society after you graduate, or you can enroll in the Elite training Academy to become an Invader or another high ranking position.”

“That’s what Maroon is planning to do,” Purple said, his voice taking on a proud tone.

“Who?” Lilith asked. 

“Our offspring,” Purple said standing with Red quickly following. “He’s on a mission and won’t be back for another three months so you’ll be staying in his room for now. We’ve moved his things into storage.”

“I was thinking of creating some designs for another room to be added to our quarters, so when he comes back they can each have their own room,” Red said to Purple. 

Lilith was going to ask about their child, but the mention of her getting her own room push that thought to the back of her mind. “I get my own room? I don’t have to stay in the cage?” Lilith asked in bewilderment. 

“Nope,” Red chuckled. “We got rid of that already.”

“What?!” Lilith exclaimed in a panic and leaped up to grab onto Red’s gauntlet-free wrist. “What about my sketch book that was inside?” 

“I have your visual studies log,” Mik quickly interjected. When they were moving out the cage he spotted the log, recognizing it and hastily took possession of it before the Tallest could take a look inside. “Lilith has a talent in manually replicating images,” he said to the Tallest then to Lilith, “your log was almost full, I will send a new one to you and keep your previous archives safe.” 

Lilith let go of Red’s arm and gave Mik a relieved and genuinely grateful smile. Red frowned at his wrist when Lilith let go and his frown deeped when Lilith dropped to her knees to be at the proper height to give Mik a big hug. “Thank you so much, Uncle Mik!” 

Surprised at the sudden contact, Mik froze with his antennae upright in a startled position, but they quickly lowered into a relaxed state and he felt a smile slip onto his face. He went to hug her back, but she was pulled to her feet by Tallest Red. 

“That’s enough, come see the room we prepared for you,” Red said guiding the hybrid forward by her shoulders. As they went through the door he glanced back at Mik with a glare. What was so important about a visual log? They saved her from an awful fate and were allowing her to stay in their personal quarters. If there was any gratitude to be shown it should be to them, not some smaller. 

He guided her to what used to be Maroon’s room. They moved all his things out and had new ones quickly made and brought in. Since the designs were the same as Maroon’s with a variation on color, it was easy for the engineering team to whip them up. Red already had a few ideas on what he wanted to do for Maroon’s new room that he’d go over with Purple later. It would make a great gift to celebrate his first mission’s success. 

Lilith walked into the room that was previously being unused and was shocked by the change. The furniture looked almost the same, but everything was painted with hues of yellow. It made the windowless room look bright and warm and it was so unlike any of the other colors she had seen. 

“This… This is for me?” she asked after wandering around the space in amazement and turning back to them. 

“Yes, we can’t have you living in the common space anymore,” Red said.

“Why yellow?” Lilith asked, knowing that the color choice was deliberate and wanting to know why they gave her such a non-Irken color. 

“What do you mean ‘why’?” Purple asked rolling his eyes at the dumb question. Going over to the smeetling he tapped her with one long finger between her eyes making her blink. “Because your eyes are yellow of course,” the reason was obvious. Looking at her Purple paused, it would have been obvious for any normal Irken. “Irkens choose colors to represent themselves and those colors always match their eyes.”

“Oh,” Lilith turned back to her new bed and lightly touched the yellow blankets. She felt a flush rise to her cheeks. They picked these colors for her not because she was different from other Irkens, but because they had treated her just like any other Irken. It was a weird feeling, she felt… included. It was a new feeling. She always did her best to look like her environment, to blend in, because she didn’t belong. 

“Yellow is a rare color,” Red mused looking around the room. “Most Irkens have pink eyes, or colors close to that, but a few have had blue, orange, green, or yellow. Actually the previous Tallest had blue eyes. When she ruled you could find many things painted blue in the Massive.”

Lilith perked up at this. “Other Irkens have yellow eyes?” 

“Yes, but not many,” Red said. “The tech drones were very excited to make a different color for painting.” He frowned at the amount of yellow in the room. “Though, they might have gone a bit overboard.” 

“No, I love it!” Lilith said throwing open her arms and shouting a bit too loudly. Immediately she became embarrassed and internally groaned at how much she had sounded like Pop. Tucking in her arms she turned shy and said in a much more quiet voice. “Thank you very much.” 

Red crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes at the smeetling. “You were willing to go on your knees to give skinship to the smaller in thanks for a mere log book,” Red said. “We saved your life and gave you a room. So what do we get?”

“What… what do you want?” Lilith asked a bit perplexed at how to respond. She wasn’t sure if he was teasing or serious. Maybe there was an Irken tradition of showing gratitude in some special way? It wasn’t like she could hug them… right? They were covered in armor, they wouldn’t feel it anyway. 

“Why don’t you think of a way to show us how amazingly grateful you are at us becoming your foster parental units while we show you around the Massive?” Purple suggested. “Think of how you would thank your real parental units and then do something bigger. We are the most important Irkens in the entire universe after all.” 

“Um, okay,” Lilith nodded. If she didn’t give them something up to their standards would… would they get rid of her? She glanced at Uncle Mik, during the tour maybe she would have a moment to ask him what to do. 

“Good,” Red nodded in satisfaction. They were the Tallest if anyone should be given thanks and praises it should be them. After showing Lilith around she would understand how amazing they were and be in awe of them as all Irkens should be. Showing such a smile to a smaller and even willing to have skinship with one, and Mik of all Irkens, it was downright irritating. Not even Maroon gave Mik such attention and he spent most of his early smeethood around the smaller. The Hybrid clearly just didn’t realize how amazing they were. That was the first thing they had to teach her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mik is witnessing how strong the Irken instincts are in caring for Smeetlings. The last thing he wants to do is jeopardize Lilith's chance of survival and her well-being by revealing who her Irken parent is. 
> 
> Lilith is still apprehensive about this new turn of events, but the promise of being taken care of and maybe finding a place she can belong is a very healing prospect indeed. 
> 
> Being underwhelmed by their presence is a VERY new experience for Red and Purple. Red especially, as he has always been showered with praise and admiration. The mere idea that HE a TALLEST might be just the slightest bit miffed that a smaller is getting more praise/attention by a smeet that they have decided to adopt is inconceivable to the arrogant Tallest. Even with Purple Red hasn't ever felt much jealousy, he's been too in awe or respectful of his fellow Tallest to feel that way. Adopting a Earthen-raised teenager, a female at that, is going to create all kinds a "fun" new experiences for the Tallest. Fun to write anyway, lol.


End file.
